Appearing via a crappy cell phone camera feed, Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees on Thursday for the first time since the company accepted his $44 billion buyout offer in April.
In the meandering call, which lasted about an hour, Musk at times took bizarre tangents, including briefly discussing aliens and noting that he had dubbed himself the “techno-king” of Tesla, according to a person who heard him speak.
“That was pure chaos,” the person said.
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Musk, who has aggressively argued in favor of “free speech” principles on Twitter, only took questions that had been screened in advance, the employee added.
During the meeting, he declined to confirm how many people he might lay off if the deal closes, instead expressing vague dissatisfaction that the company’s costs currently exceed its revenue.
"Genuinely have no idea why anyone would give this guy money for anything. He has no direct answers," a current employee said.
The meeting opened with a question, delivered by chief marketing officer Leslie Berland, asking Musk why he loved Twitter.
“I swear he’s stuttering and babbling,” the employee told The Daily Beast of Musk’s rambling reply. He eventually landed on a more cogent response about the value of self-expression.
Musk then proceeded to rail “on about getting rid of bots,” the person added, “which is so fucking rich,” considering his proclivity for trolling on the platform.
He addressed more serious topics as well, including how the company might increase its user base and generate additional revenue.
Multiple questions also involved whether employees will be able continue working remotely. Musk made no guarantees, though he said “exceptional” workers would retain flexibility. (Earlier this month, he emailed employees at his electric carmaker Tesla telling them to resign if they didn’t want to return to in-person work.)
Later on the call, when asked about his political leanings, Musk said that he considered himself a centrist and that he had historically voted for Democrats. But, as he noted on Twitter earlier this week, he voted for a Republican congressional candidate named Mayra Flores this month, despite reports about her alleged support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.
It has been months of relentless turbulence for the social media company since Musk first unveiled in April that he had amassed a roughly nine percent stake.
Initially, it looked like the Tesla CEO would simply join the company’s board—which would imbue him with an unexpected level of influence.
But Musk decided that position wasn’t sufficient and he backed out at the last minute. Eventually, despite Twitter’s initial efforts to block him from amassing a controlling stake, he made a $44 billion bid for the company, at a marijuana-friendly price-per-share of $54.20.
The company accepted, and Musk has lined up financing to go through with the deal. But in the weeks since, Twitter’s share price has declined significantly; it now hovers around $38 per share.
Musk has signaled that he may try to renegotiate the deal or back out entirely, claiming with scant evidence that Twitter has undercounted the volume of fake accounts and spam on its platform.
It will be hard to renege, given the deal’s $1 billion break-up fee and other clauses that could enable Twitter to force him to follow through on the agreement.
As of mid-day Thursday, Twitter’s stock was holding roughly even, while Tesla’s had declined by about eight percent.
