After Elon Musk takeover: 75 percent of Twitter employees will have to leave

Even before the takeover, Twitter wanted to cut a quarter of the jobs. Also: Snap shares collapse by a quarter and Alphabet has to pay millions in fines in India.

Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.

The top topics:

Around 7500 people currently work at Twitter – 75 percent of them can expect to lose their job, as reported by the Washington Post. Elon Musk, who wants to take over the company, has told potential investors that he plans drastic layoffs to cut costs. He wanted to reduce the number of employees to 2,000, wrote the newspaper, citing insiders and confidential documents.

A job cut was planned anyway: Even before Musk’s offer, Twitter management was planning to cut almost a quarter of the workforce. Musk’s planned cuts are “unimaginable,” a former Twitter executive told the newspaper. The $44 billion deal is expected to close by the end of next week. If the takeover is not completed by October 28th, there will be a lawsuit in Delaware. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt, The Information und The Verge]

On the founding scene: The Berlin startup delivery green wants to make the famous “last mile” more climate-friendly – with the help of couriers who travel by load bike or electric car. For this idea there was only recently a twelve million strong Series A round. Immediately afterwards, the logistics subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn joined the startup. We have exclusively for you the pitch deck with which Liefergrün presented itself at DB Schenker. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

Die Snap-Shares plummeted by around a quarter after the photos app Snapchat reported its slowest revenue growth on record and a significantly higher loss for the most recent quarter. Revenue for the quarter rose 6% year over year to $1.1 billion. In the first quarter, the growth rate was 38 percent. Previously, 50 or 60 percent was common. The quarterly loss rose to $359.5 million, a year earlier it was almost $72 million. However, there was growth in daily active users, which rose from 347 to 363 million in the quarter. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt und CNBC]

India has against Alphabet fined 13.37 billion rupees (165 million euros). The Indian Competition Commission throws Google alleges that it abused the dominant role of its Android operating system. The Commission said the pre-installed Google apps would encourage Android users to use Google’s search. Google has been asked to make changes. [Mehr bei Bloomberg und Handelsblatt]

Propeller, a fund that invests in companies tackling climate change through ocean solutions, has unveiled its first $100 million venture fund. The new fund entered into a multi-year partnership with the well-known Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. This includes undisclosed funding, as well as access to new research, intellectual property and advanced machinery, such as the group’s ships and robotic submersibles. [Mehr bei Axios]

The co-founder and president of the US car dispatcher Lyft, John Zimmer, believes that autonomous vehicles will not replace the driver in the next decade. At the US media Techcrunch’s disrupt event, he said, “I can’t imagine that we would need fewer drivers in the next ten years,” noting that he expects autonomous vehicles to be between one and ten percent of the trips could handle. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

Apple announced an iPhone update for its iOS 16.1 operating system. Starting Monday, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users can access Fitness+ even if they don’t have an Apple Watch. The update also includes a shareable iCloud photo library. Unlike shared albums, in the shared photo library, everyone can add photos and videos. The update also optimizes iPhone charging with clean energy. Even Apple needs to add more value to customers to avoid losing them in the current macroeconomic climate. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: As a tutor noticed Daniel Young, where the shoe pinches in math. His short YouTube videos have been clicked millions of times today. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

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Happy Friday!

Your Gründerszene editors