Over 150 Twitter Employees Move To Meta, Google Amid Looming Musk Takeover: Report

Meta and Google are hiring former employees of Twitter who left the social media company over the last 90 days, a new report revealed. The mass exodus of employees at the San Francisco-based tech company comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk races to close the contentious acquisition by the end of this week.

LinkedIn data showed that about 30% or 159 employees of 530 workers who left Twitter over the past three months have moved to new jobs at either Meta or Google, based on a report by Elizabeth Gafford and Greg Larkin of invitation-only business executive network Punks & Pinstripes. The network studied verified LinkedIn data that tracked Twitter employees leaving the social media platform and which companies the workers are moving to.

In the said report, it was revealed that in October alone, nearly 50 employees parted ways with Twitter, and since Musk started buying Twitter stocks earlier this year, more than 1,100 workers have walked out of the embattled company.

The report further found that dozens of other former Twitter employees have moved to work at TikTok, Snap, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

"The bottom line here is that the uncertainty being generated by the fight between Elon Musk and Twitter is driving a lot of their top talent to other social media platforms. These people have options as to where they can go and they're going," Larkin told Insider.

A person familiar with the Musk-Twitter deal told Reuters on Tuesday that the SpaceX founder notified co-investors that he is looking to close the $44 billion acquisition by Friday.

A Delaware court judge has ordered for the deal to be closed by Friday or the warring parties will be forced to face trial over the acquisition. Twitter declined to comment on the said notification from Musk, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, employees who have decided to stick with Twitter are reportedly dispersing an open letter that seeks to block Musk's supposed plan to lay off as much as 75% of the company's total workforce once the deal is completed.

"Elon Musk's plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter's ability to serve the public conversation," a draft of the letter exclusively obtained by Time Magazine revealed.

The open letter in question, which demands that Musk commits to preserving the current workforce headcount and that the billionaire foster "fair" treatment of all employees regardless of their political beliefs, has yet to be published publicly.