Twitter employees are finding out whether they are being laid off today – one week after Elon Musk’s takeover.
The social network’s offices are temporarily closed globally, and workers will find out their fate by 4pm UK time.
Those who are losing their jobs will receive a message to their personal email address, while employees staying on will get an email to their work account.
Twitter employs around 8,000 workers in total and has staff based in London and Manchester.
There is widespread speculation in US media that just shy of 4,000 positions will be axed.
An internal memo said: “In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.”
“We recognise that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward,” it said.
“If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.”
Image: A storage box is seen through the window at the offices of Twitter in London’s Air Street on Friday
Twitter said all badge access would be suspended “to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data”.
A Twitter employee told NBC News it is the first communication staff have received since Musk acquired the company on 27 October.
“It’s total chaos, house melting down, everyone looking towards this email,” they said.
A British employee, Chris Younie, revealed he could not access his work email account, tweeting: “Well this isn’t looking promising”.
Staff were sharing messages of support with each other on Twitter, using the workplace hashtag #OneTeam – with one saying: “Just lost access to my Twitter email and Slack. This is so unreal.”
Twitter is being sued over the layoffs.
A class-action lawsuit filed has been filed in a San Francisco court.
An unknown number of staff involved claim the company is in violation of federal and California law because employees have not been given enough notice.
The company moved to reassure staff last month that there were no plans for mass redundancies after it was reported that Musk wanted to make 75% of the workforce redundant after his $44bn (£38.4bn) takeover.
The Washington Post report said job cuts were inevitable, claiming there was a plan to slash Twitter’s payroll by about $800m (£715m) by the end of next year.
Musk has ordered Twitter’s teams to find up to $1bn (£895m) in annual infrastructure cost savings.
It has been a week since Musk walked into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a kitchen sink.
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‘Let that sink in’
The notification of layoffs caps seven days of purges by the entrepreneur.
Musk has also pledged to make getting rid of spam accounts one of his main priorities – but there’s another mounting exodus that he perhaps did not intend.
Fears over the Tesla and SpaceX founder’s potentially loose stance on content moderation has plenty of genuine users considering quitting the platform, including some celebrities.
Musk, who had updated his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” – and since changed it to ‘Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator’ – has said he did not buy the company to make more money but “to try to help humanity, whom I love”.
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has ordered hundreds of agency workers at its main distribution centre to stay at home as it grapples with the unfolding impact of a cyberattack on Britain’s best-known retailer.
Sky News has learnt that roughly 200 people who had been due to undertake shift work at M&S’s vast Castle Donington clothing and homewares logistics centre in the East Midlands have been told not to come in amid the escalating crisis.
Agency staff make up about 20% of Castle Donington’s workforce, according to a source close to M&S.
The retailer’s own employees who work at the site have been told to come in as usual, the source added.
“There is work for them to do,” they said.
M&S disclosed last week that it was suspending online orders as a result of the cyberattack, but has provided few other details about the nature and extent of the incident.
In its latest update to investors, the company said on Friday that its product range was “available to browse online, and our stores remain open and ready to welcome and serve customers”.
“We continue to manage the incident proactively and the M&S team – supported by leading experts – is working extremely hard to restore online operations and continue to serve customers well,” it added.
It was unclear on Monday how long the disruption to M&S’s e-commerce operations would last, although retail executives said the cyberattack was “extensive” and that it could take the company some time to fully resolve its impact.
Shares in M&S slid a further 2.4% on Monday morning, following a sharp fall last week, as investors reacted to the absence of positive news about the incident.
At that price, the company’s founder and chief executive, Will Shu, would be in line for a windfall of more than £170m.
Deliveroo further announced, before trading on Monday, that it had suspended its £100m share buyback programme.
The opening share price reaction took the value to 171p per share – still shy of the 180p on the table – and well under the 390p per share flotation price seen in 2021.
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Deliveroo’s shares have weakened nearly 50% since their market debut.
The deal is not expected to face regulatory hurdles as it provides DoorDash access to 10 new markets where it currently has no presence.
But a takeover would likely represent a blow to the City of London given the anticipated loss of a tech-focused player.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “If the deal is done at that price, the company will fail to shake off the ‘Floperoo’ tag it was saddled with after its disastrous IPO debut in 2021.
“Even though Deliveroo has finally broken through into profitable territory, the prolonged bout of indigestion around its share price has continued.
“The surge in demand for home deliveries during the pandemic waned just as competition heated up. Deliveroo’s foray into grocery deliveries has helped it turn a profit but it’s still facing fierce rivals.”
She added: “The DoorDash Deliveroo deal will be unappetising for the government which has been trying to boost the number of tech companies listed in London.
“If Deliveroo is purchased it would join a stream of companies leaving the London Stock Exchange, with too few IPOs [initial public offerings] in the pipeline to make up the numbers.”
A trade deal with the US is “possible” but not “certain”, a senior minister has said as he struck a cautious tone about negotiations with the White House.
Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips there was “a serious level of engagement going on at high levels” to secure a UK-US trade deal.
However, Mr McFadden, a key ally of Sir Keir Starmer, struck a more cautious tone than Chancellor Rachel Reeves on the prospect of a US trade deal, saying: “I think an agreement is possible – I don’t think it’s certain, and I don’t want to say it’s certain, but I think it’s possible.”
He went on to say the government wanted an “agreement in the UK’s interests” and not a “hasty deal”, amid fears from critics that Number 10 could acquiesce a deal that lowers food standards, for example, or changes certain taxes in a bid to persuade Donald Trump to lower some of the tariffs that have been placed on British goods.
And asked about the timing of the deal – following recent reports an agreement was imminent – Mr McFadden said: “We’ll keep working with the United States and keep trying to get to an agreement in the coming weeks.”
As well as talks with the US, the UK has also ramped up its efforts with the EU, with suggestions it could include a new EU youth mobility scheme that would allow under-30s from the bloc to live, work and study in the UK and vice versa.
Mr McFadden said he believed the government could “improve upon” the Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson, saying it had caused “an awful lot of bureaucracy and costs here in the UK”.
He said “first and foremost” on the government’s agenda was securing a food and agriculture and a veterinary agreement, saying it was “such an important area for the UK and an area where we’ve had so much extra cost and bureaucracy because of Brexit”.
He added: “But again, as with the United States, there’s no point in calling the game before it’s done. We’ve still got work to do, and we’re doing that work with our partners in the EU.”
The Cabinet Office minister also rejected suggestions the UK would have to choose between pursuing a trade deal with the US and one with the EU – the latter of which has banned chlorinated chicken in its markets – as has the UK – but which the US has historically wanted.
On the issue of chlorinated chicken, Mr McFadden said the government had “made clear we will not water down animal welfare standards with either party”.
“But I don’t agree that it’s some fundamental choice beyond where we have to pick one trading partner rather than another. I think that’s to misunderstand the nature of the UK economy, and I don’t think would be in our interests to put all our eggs in one basket.”
Also speaking to Trevor Phillips was Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who said the government should be close to closing the deal with the US “because we got very close last time President Trump was in office”.
She also insisted food standards should not be watered down in order to get a deal, saying she did not reach an agreement with Canada when she was in government for that reason.
“What Labour needs to do now is show that they can get a deal that isn’t making concessions, so we can have what we had last month before the trade tariffs, and we need serious people doing this,” she said.