When Telsa founder and rocket man Elon Musk threw $44 billion at Twitter, he didn’t pull all the money out of his own pocket and made promises to bankers who backed the purchase about how he would go about bringing in revenue from the social media site.
Musk’s money-making plans for Twitter, which launched in 2006, have surfaced to include charging for tweets, cracking down on executive and board pay and reducing staff, according to a Friday (April 29) Reuters report citing unnamed sources with insider information.
Other reports have said pay and staff reductions are possibilities on the table if the acquisition deal goes through as planned.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” Musk said in a press release.
See also: Musk-Twitter Deal ‘Great Win for Free Speech,’ Coinbase CEO Says
The multibillionaire got commitments from his bankers on April 21, but he first had to convince them that Twitter had the cash flow to cover the $13 billion debt he requested against the company. He also took out a $12.5 billion margin loan tied to Tesla and agreed to pony up the balance from his own pocket.
Sources told Reuters that his pitch to bankers revolved around his vision, not absolute plans backed with commitments. Overall, his plan had few concrete details, the sources said.
Musk’s tweets about getting rid of board directors’ salaries indicated the site would save an estimated $3 million.
A Musk representative declined to comment, as did a Twitter representative.
Related: Tesla Shares Plunge 11% Following Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal
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