SpaceX – Tesla with Twitter
Elon Musk oversaw a $44 billion purchase of Twitter and took over as CEO in late October. According to internal documents seen by CNBC and talks with current Twitter workers, he has been sending senior executives and engineers from other companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Platform, to assist at the social media company ever since.
Additionally, Musk has given participants in the Twitter acquisition from financial companies access to jobs in the social media business.
It wasn’t immediately apparent how many hours each employee has put in at Twitter thus far or how much of their work might have been completed remotely as opposed to at the San Francisco headquarters or regional Twitter offices.
Investors are still worried about how Musk’s financial obligations, his divided schedule, and his contentious Twitter judgments may affect the company.
Since he assumed control of Twitter on October 27, Tesla shares have fallen by nearly 25%.
More than 50 Tesla workers, largely software engineers working on the Autopilot feature, were reportedly permitted to work for Musk at Twitter as soon as he assumed control and were still able to do so as of early December, according to internal documents acquired by CNBC.
The names listed include individuals who have previously been covered by CNBC, as well as:
- Director of Software Engineering Silvio Brugada
- Director of Infrastructure Engineering and Info Security Rajasekar Jagannathan
- Senior Manager of DevOps Michael Outland
- Director of Battery Manufacturing Engineering Andrew Ross
- Chief Information Officer Nagesh Saldi
- Autopilot Project Manager RJ Senator
In a Delaware court in November, lawyers questioned Elon Musk about his use of Tesla expertise at Twitter.
Did anybody ever advise you that it would not be a good idea for your private firm, which is a public company, to use the resources of the public company?
Musk described Tesla workers’ work for him at Twitter in his testimony as “simply a voluntary activity.”
This was sort of an after-hours meeting.
It was only temporary.
I believe it persisted for a few days before coming to an end.
The statement from Musk further reads, “I didn’t really see this as using Tesla assets, as I had requested only for a volunteer basis, and I did not specify any number of individuals.
I’m not sure of the exact number, but I doubt it was close to 50.
It was a tiny number, nevertheless.
Just to be clear, there are 120,000 employees at the corporation, thus this is de minimize.
But they said that the majority would also believe it was difficult to refuse a direct request from Musk without afterward receiving unfavorable performance assessments or suffering other repercussions.
Musk has hired executives and staff from SpaceX, the reusable rocket and satellite internet services firm he created in 2002, in addition to Tesla personnel, to assist him at Twitter. Contracts with NASA and the U.S. Air Force generate cash for SpaceX, a significant U.S. defense contractor.
SpaceX – Tesla with Twitter
- VP of Human Resources Brian Bjelde
- Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategic Acquisitions Bret Johnsen
- Director of Information Technology Joshua Ursenbach
- President Steve Davis
- Director of Electrical and Software Engineering Riccardo Biasini
- Chief of Operations Jehn Balajadia
Musk has recruited old friends and investors who have a stake in “Twitter 2.0” under his leadership in addition to staff members from his other businesses. As of the beginning of December, some of those individuals permitted to work for the firm include:
- Angel investor Jason Calacanis
- DFJ Growth Partner and Founder Randy Glein
- Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Sriram Krishnan (who is a former Twitter employee)
- Sutter Hill Ventures’ Managing Director Samuel Pullara
- Craft Ventures’ Partner and co-founder David Sacks
- Five people from Valor Equity Partners, including the firm’s founder, Antonio Gracias, and Elon Musk’s former chief of staff at Tesla and SpaceX, Sam Teller, who is now a venture partner at Valor.
According to a current Twitter employee, from the beginning of November, Musk has been “flattening” the organizational structure at the firm, resulting in many managers having more than 20 direct reports each.
Before the Tesla CEO took control, the majority had closer to 10, giving them time for mentorship.
With the removal of the Birdhouse tool, Musk’s team has made it more difficult for staff to identify who is working on what projects within Twitter. Birdhouse served as an internal directory and organizational chart.
