Elon Musk warns ‘Twitter bankruptcy possible’ if cash burn lingers

Elon Musk, in his first address to Twitter Inc. employees since purchasing the company for $44 billion, said that bankruptcy was a possibility if it doesn’t start generating more cash, according to people familiar with the matter.

The warning came amid a tumultuous start to Musk’s reign at the social media company — a two-week period in which he has fired half of Twitter’s staff, ushered out most of the top executives and ordered the remaining employees to stop working from home. One executive who until Thursday had emerged as part of Musk’s new leadership team, Yoel Roth, departed, people familiar with the situation said. Another, Robin Wheeler, also resigned — but Musk persuaded her to stay on, said some of the people, who requested anonymity to protect personal and professional relationships.

While the buyout has removed Twitter from the scrutiny of public markets, Musk loaded the company with almost $13 billion of debt that’s now in the hands of seven Wall Street banks that have been unable to offload it to investors.