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Elon Musk's comments in an internal Twitter meeting were 'confusing' and 'hilarious', some staff say

Isobel Asher Hamilton   

Elon Musk's comments in an internal Twitter meeting were 'confusing' and 'hilarious', some staff say
  • Elon Musk attended an all-hands meeting at Twitter on Thursday.
  • Musk launched a bid to acquire the company.

Elon Musk joined an all-hands Twitter meeting on Thursday to answer employee questions about his proposed $44 billion takeover of the company.

Twitter employees had mixed reactions to Musk's comments in the internal meeting according to reports from Insider, tech journalist Casey Newton, Vox, and Reuters.

Two Twitter employees who attended the meeting told Insider's Kali Hays and Hugh Langley it was at times both "confusing" and "hilarious."

Newton spoke to around six Twitter employees about their impressions of the meeting, as he reported in his newsletter Platformer.

Newton wrote although the response was mixed, most of the employees he spoke to said the meeting had crystallized fears among staff around Musk's proposed takeover.

Newton said prevailing characterizations about Musk's performance in meeting included that he was rambling and incoherent.

"He is demonstrating a dangerous lack of knowledge about technical, policy, and operational matters," one Twitter employee told Vox following the meeting.

Employee dissatisfaction with the meeting was visible as it was ongoing. "There were a lot of negative live comments during the stream," one Twitter employee told Insider.

Reuters also reported Twitter employees complained on internal company Slack channels during the meeting that Musk was not giving useful answers on his vision for the company.

A source who watched the call told Reuters that once Musk signed off from the meeting, his avatar showed two hands shaped like the number 69 in an apparent joke about the a sexual position.

Musk ran through a wide range of employee concerns during the meeting.

He hinted layoffs could be on the way if he takes over the company and said "exceptional" employees would be permitted to keep working from home.

Musk also digressed into talking about aliens, saying he hasn't seen any evidence they exist.

Not all Twitter employees are pessimistic about Musk's proposed takeover. One Twitter employee wrote for Insider that despite his colleague's reservations, he found the meeting to be motivational.

Twitter declined to comment when contacted by Insider about employee sentiment following the meeting.

Musk's proposed takeover of Twitter has been chaotic, with the billionaire threatening to walk away from the deal if Twitter didn't provide him with data about how it calculates the number of bots on its platform.

Twitter agreed to provide Musk with its so-called "firehose" of internal data, The Washington Post reported.

Twitter insiders told Insider's Kali Hays they expect Musk to use the firehose to try to re-negotiate a better price for the deal.

Are you a Twitter employee and would like to share your experience? Contact this reporter at ihamilton@insider.com. Always use a non-work email.

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