• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech

Elon Musk gives Twitter employees details on ‘very significant’ stock awards after relentless layoffs, cost-cutting: Report

Steve Mollman
By
Steve Mollman
Steve Mollman
Contributors Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
Steve Mollman
By
Steve Mollman
Steve Mollman
Contributors Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 25, 2023, 6:34 PM ET
Twitter CEO Elon Musk
Twitter CEO Elon Musk is offering employees new equity grants.Marlena Sloss—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Twitter employees might have left the office Friday feeling particularly demoralized. Last month, after yet another round of layoffs, CEO Elon Musk indicated he’d share information about “very significant stock and other compensation awards, based on performance” on March 24. 

Employees received no such information by the end of the workday. “People are not happy, to say the least,” tweeted Platformer journalist Zoë Schiffer, who tracks the company closely. 

But late last night, Musk apparently sent an email to employees with some of the much-anticipated details. Schiffer and the Wall Street Journal reported they obtained the message. 

Fortune reached out to Twitter for comments but received no immediate reply, at least not from any humans. (The company no longer has a media communications team.)

In the email, Musk acknowledged the radical changes at Twitter since his $44 billion takeover in October, but said they were needed because the company had been close to running out of money, according to Schiffer. Now, financial incentives for workers should align with the company, which will do periodic liquidity events, he reportedly wrote.

Twitter is offering employees new equity grants that will start to vest after six months, according to the Journal, and in about a year it will offer a liquidity event in which they can cash out some of that equity.

The new grants will vest over four years, according to the Journal, and will be separate from legacy equity converted to cash when Musk took over.

The grants reflect a roughly $20 billion valuation, about 55% below the price Musk paid for the company, according to The Information.

Musk took Twitter private after buying it. In its last full year as a public firm, it had more than 7,500 employees and spent nearly $630 million on stock-based compensation, according to the Journal. As of December, the company had about 2,000 workers, following one round of layoffs after another and drastic cost-cutting measures. 

Earlier this week, Musk sent employees an email at 2:30 a.m. saying the “office is not optional,” complaining about the San Francisco office being half empty. Musk has been a fierce critic of remote work, suggesting remote employees only “pretend to work.”

Subscribe to Well Adjusted, our newsletter full of simple strategies to work smarter and live better, from the Fortune Well team. Sign up today.
About the Author
Steve Mollman
By Steve MollmanContributors Editor
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Steve Mollman is a contributors editor at Fortune.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

photo of western union store
CryptoCryptocurrency
Stablecoins will shake up the $900 billion remittance market—setting up a fight between crypto firms and legacy brands like Western Union
By Carlos GarciaJanuary 17, 2026
6 hours ago
InnovationThe Boring Company
Exclusive: Elon Musk’s Boring Co. is studying a tunnel project to Tesla Gigafactory near Reno
By Jessica MathewsJanuary 16, 2026
16 hours ago
AIOpenAI
ChatGPT tests ads as a new era of AI begins
By Sharon GoldmanJanuary 16, 2026
19 hours ago
AITech
Trump says he’ll make tech firms pay for power. They’d love to
By Michelle Ma, Alicia Tang and BloombergJanuary 16, 2026
20 hours ago
Close cropped images of Sam Altman alongside an actor playing him.
AIFilm Industry
A filmmaker deepfaked Sam Altman for his movie about AI. Then things got personal
By Beatrice NolanJanuary 16, 2026
22 hours ago
C-SuiteFortune 500 Power Moves
Fortune 500 Power Moves: Which executives gained and lost power this week
By Fortune EditorsJanuary 16, 2026
1 day ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
America’s $38 trillion national debt is so big the nearly $1 trillion interest payment will be larger than Medicare soon
By Shawn TullyJanuary 15, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Europe
Americans have been quietly plundering Greenland for over 100 years, since a Navy officer chipped fragments off the Cape York iron meteorite
By Paul Bierman and The ConversationJanuary 14, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
The Nobel Prize committee doesn't want Trump getting one, even as a gift—but they treated Obama very differently
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 16, 2026
20 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
Anthony Scaramucci thinks Trump's 'hard-left' move to cap credit-card fees is because he's 'texting back and forth with Mayor Mamdani'
By Nick Lichtenberg and Eva RoytburgJanuary 16, 2026
24 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Health
The head of marketing at Slate posted on LinkedIn requesting cleaning services as a benefit at her company. The next day, HR answered her call
By Sydney LakeJanuary 15, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Jensen Huang tells Stanford students their high expectations may make it hard for them to succeed: 'I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering'
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJanuary 16, 2026
1 day ago

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.