Elon Musk's Ex Justine Calls Twitter Employees' Letter Protesting Reported Staff Cuts a 'Very Bad Idea'
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Pascal Le Segretain/Getty; Elon Musk; Justine Musk
Justine Musk has a message for Twitter employees who addressed her ex-husband Elon Musk in a letter about his reported plans for the company as his deal to buy it is finalized.
"So that open letter from Twitter employees to their new boss was a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad idea," she wrote on the social media platform Wednesday.
The novelist — who was married to the billionaire for eight years and shares five children with him (their first child, a son, died at 10 weeks old) — was referring to a letter written by employees of the company in response to Musk's reported plans to dramatically downsize Twitter's workforce once he takes over the company.
"Elon Musk's plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter's ability to serve the public conversation," the letter states, according to Time. "A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users' and customers' trust in the platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation."
Bloomberg reports that on Wednesday, during a visit to Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, Musk told employees that he did not plan to cut 75% of the company's staff as owner, despite previous reporting on the matter in The Washington Post.
Employees were told about Musk's visit to the Twitter offices Wednesday by Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, who sent an email to staff letting them know that the businessman would be stopping by, according to CNN.
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Musk carried a white sink when he arrived, according to video he included in a tweet that said, "Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in."
On Thursday, Musk tweeted a message to Twitter advertisers to "personally share my motivation in acquiring Twitter," he said.
"There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong," he wrote in the note.
Musk said the social media company is "important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence."
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"I didn't do it because it would be easy. I didn't do it to make more money. I did it to try and help humanity, whom I love," he continued in his message about the purchase. "And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility."
Musk first agreed to buy Twitter in April. However, nearly three months later, he announced his plans to back out of his agreement, alleging that Twitter was in "breach of multiple provisions" of an original agreement.
Twitter promptly filed a lawsuit against Musk, in hopes of compelling him to follow through with the acquisition. In court documents obtained by PEOPLE in July, Twitter claimed Musk acted in "bad faith" after reaching a deal to buy the social media platform.
After months of back-and-forth, Musk sent a letter to Twitter earlier this month, according to Bloomberg and The New York Times. The outlets reported that in the letter, he proposed to acquire the platform at the original price he agreed on, provided Twitter dropped its lawsuit.
Musk has until Oct. 28 to close the $44 billion deal, or the case is set to go to trial in November.
By Wednesday, Musk's Twitter bio read "Chief Twit" and his location had been updated to "Twitter HQ."
