I was with him until "[Musk's] axing of half the Twitter team since his takeover in October should provide inspiration to other tech bosses". While yes it is likely true that Google and other tech companies have excess staff, there is a right way to handle that situation so it doesn't adversely affect the business, and what Elon did is not it.
Twitter's problem was cash flow and avoiding getting margin called amid falling ad revenue, high expenses and interest payment obligations, all related to Elon's buyout. They needed to stop the bleeding, and fast. Large tech corps are meanwhile sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars in their bank account and posting profits of tens of billions every quarter. It would be idiotic to further disrupt their operations for no reason.
Should Google do more rounds of layoffs, kill employee morale, increase overwork and burnout, shut innovative businesses, send talent to competition and significantly weaken the company's long-term prospects, all for a few hundred million in payroll savings that will go towards stock buybacks? The sad part is that the activist investor class will reply with a resounding – yes.
Twitter's problem was cash flow and avoiding getting margin called amid falling ad revenue, high expenses and interest payment obligations, all related to Elon's buyout. They needed to stop the bleeding, and fast. Large tech corps are meanwhile sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars in their bank account and posting profits of tens of billions every quarter. It would be idiotic to further disrupt their operations for no reason.
Should Google do more rounds of layoffs, kill employee morale, increase overwork and burnout, shut innovative businesses, send talent to competition and significantly weaken the company's long-term prospects, all for a few hundred million in payroll savings that will go towards stock buybacks? The sad part is that the activist investor class will reply with a resounding – yes.