Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, has explained the ongoing massive purge at the company. The wealthiest man in the world says the company is losing about $4 million daily due to a large workforce.
The Tesla CEO said the company had been left with no option but to let people go but stopped short of explaining how the large workforce is causing the company the amount.
Reports quoted Musk as saying that all the staff received three months' severance packages, about 50 per cent of their entitlements - more than legally required.
He said: "Regarding Twitter's reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required."
There were speculations that he planned to sack about 3,700 people. Earlier in the week, Musk announced an $8 subscription for verified Twitter accounts to retain their badges.
Despite the outrage that greeted the announcement, the SpaceX CEO doubled down on the decision.
'Trash me all day, but it'll cost $8,' he said in a tweet on Saturday. Some companies and corporate organisations have paused their advertisements on Twitter due to what some said is a developing situation.
Among them is Volkswagen, which said it is monitoring the situation 'and will decide about the next steps.' Musk had blamed the decline in ad revenue due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, despite content moderation remaining the same.
Musk had on Friday lamented about a drop in Twitter's ad revenue.
365MediaHub reported that one year after it opened an office in Ghana, its first in Africa, Twitter has laid off almost the entire workforce in the West African country in a massive global layoff which has hit workers at the microblogging site since Elon Musk bought the company a week ago.
The layoff also comes three days after Twitter workers in Ghana officially resumed office in Ghana. Many were sacked as part of a purge Musk embarked upon since he took over the company.
It is unclear how many workers were affected at the Africa Office, but reports say the social media firm plans to cut about 3,700 jobs.