Five Key Takeaways From Musk’s Twitter Staff Meeting

(Bloomberg) -- Here are the key takeaways from Elon Musk’s remarks at the Twitter Inc. staff meeting Thursday. Click here for our TOPLive blog:

• Musk outlined a vision to get Twitter to 1 billion users and floated options like a subscription model and charging users to verify their accounts (clarifying they wouldn’t necessarily reveal identities but that payment would in itself be verification). Musk also said that advertising was still important for Twitter’s business model, but both advertising and subscription options made him more worried about bots.
• Top of mind for Twitter staff was Musk’s view on remote working. Musk said that only “excellent contributors” should be allowed to work remotely or from home and that too many people were dwelling on the idea of remote work. As a private company, Twitter would have a similar compensation structure to that of SpaceX, with stock and options awards and liquidity windows every six months, he said.
• Musk said any layoffs would be considered on a performance basis with a performance bar. He said the priority was to have revenue that was higher than costs and to make product improvements. Musk said he was not hung up on being CEO himself if the deal goes through.
• Musk said he’s in favor of “moderate politics,” and he’s “pretty close to center.” The world’s richest man also said he would allow a diverse range of views on the platform, including extreme views that are within the parameters of the law.
• Ultimately, Musk did not address the issue of or state whether he was committed to a deal to buy Twitter. It should be noted that he also wasn’t asked the question.

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