Musk plans to cut 75% of Twitter staff if he takes over: Report

As part of his bid to acquire Twitter, tech billionaire Elon Musk is reportedly planning to lay off close to 75 per cent of the microblogging site's workforce.

Job cuts are expected in the coming months no matter who owns the company, according to the report, which cited interviews and documents, the Guardian reported citing a Washington Post report.

The news of Musk's plans, should he ultimately take over the business, come at a difficult moment for Twitter, the report said.

The company said in July that it had already "significantly slowed hiring" amid a wider economic downturn in the tech industry, where many companies have announced recent hiring freezes and layoffs.

According to the report, human resources staff at the social media company have told employees that they were not planning for mass layoffs, but documents showed extensive plans to push out staff and cut down infrastructure costs were already in place before Musk offered to buy the company.

In a memo, Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett warned workers to expect "tons of public rumors and speculation" as the closing of the deal nears. "We do not have any confirmation of the buyer's plans following close and recommend not following rumors or leaked documents but rather wait for facts from us and the buyer directly," he said, reported Bloomberg

But while Twitter's current management planned to lay off 25 per cent of the staff by the end of next year, the new report revealed Musk wants to reduce the company's 7,500 employees down to a "skeleton staff" of around 2,000 people.

The layoffs will undoubtedly have an impact on Twitter's daily operations, including its ability to moderate harmful content and combat security issues, the report said.

This comes after a scathing whistleblower report in September accused Twitter of falling short on both fronts, alleging "egregious" deficiencies at the company, if added.