The Deep(ish) File: A Larry in the Coal Mine?
In which, the corporate bloodletting at Twitter is but one element of a spreading trend of mass layoffs rippling through Silicon Valley and the broader economy.
You didn't know the iconic Twitter logo was named Larry, did you? Well, if you didn’t, you know now.
November 4: Twitter in the Muskverse
The Age of Elon has begun at Twitter, and it was a full week at Twitter HQ. Elon Musk took over and promptly started firing leadership; starting with the CEO and CFO before going whole hog and firing the whole board, leaving himself in sole control of the corporation.
After the corporate bloodletting, Twitter appeared to have a rather bipolar week of banning conservative organizations and commenters, while fact-checking the White House, while Musk trolled the New York Times.
It’s certainly looking/sounding like the Wild West in Twitterville, that’s for sure, but these early moves, including announcing a return to the office policy for employees, largely appear to be low hanging fruit in Musk’s corporate house cleaning.
The bigger challenges of getting Twitter to profitability, managing a workforce that appears largely opposed to the new boss, and addressing rampant bot abuse on the platform have yet to be addressed, and will require a little more time to assess.
November 11: Tech tanks
It wasn’t just a rough first week on the job for Elon Musk over at Twitter, it was a rough week across Silicon valley.
In the latest “this economy ain’t good” anecdote, major tech companies from Meta/Facebook to Lyft laid off tens of thousands of workers, one of the biggest industry-wide job busts in years.
At Twitter, Musk cut the workforce by 11,000 (!!!) while indicating some schemes to get more paid content on the platform.
November 18: Tech’s job crunch spreads
Last week, major tech companies were announcing large layoffs in the coming weeks. This week, those cuts continued with an announced round of cuts at Amazon and FedEx (BEFORE the holiday season!).
Target announced losses approaching $600 million in 2022 from theft alone, and Disney also announced a major round of layoffs.
Tech. Retail. Entertainment. These are industry leaders in each of these sectors who are showing signs of distress. As inflation continues to eat into the holiday budgets of American families, recession fears don’t appear to be going away.
Wait a minute…
“That’s a rather shallow Deep File,” you say? Yes. Yes it is. That is because there was no Weekly Brief last week on account of Thanksgiving. But never fear, Deep Files of various sizes will be coming in hot in December, God willing, as I do a 2022 review and look ahead to 2023.
By way of preview, I will say that this newsletter had a pretty good track record of anticipating 2022.