X CEO Linda Yaccarino addresses employees amid fears of layoffs

During an internal meeting chaired by X CEO Linda Yaccarino on Wednesday, concerned employees were eager to know if she would address the burning issue on their minds: performance reviews.

Sources inside the company have confirmed that the promotion process was recently delayed without reason and that X’s sales team does not expect to meet its revenue targets for the quarter. Given that the company formerly called Twitter has struggled under Elon Musk’s ownership, employees are bracing for more layoffs.

A key Musk ally, The Boring Company CEO Steve Davis, has been reviewing finances at X’s headquarters in San Francisco for the past several weeks, according to several employees who asked not to be named without the company’s permission. As one of them described Davis: “He’s a grim reaper who only comes out for bad things.”

A source from X told Verge A few people have been laid off in recent days. Many noted the sudden departure of Yaccarino’s right-hand man, Joe Benarroch. So, when a rare all-hands meeting with him was on the employee calendar last week, X’s roughly 1,500 remaining employees were anxiously waiting to learn more.

The meeting began with a collection of viral tweets, which included By infamous GameStop trader Keith GillYaccarino then joined from the X conference room, nicknamed “Extraordinary.” She tried to drum up excitement about live events on the platform such as the Super Bowl and March Madness, and urged employees to discuss Musk’s x.AI chatbot Grok with advertisers. She also stressed that X’s focus on video is “definitely boosting advertising” without elaborating.

During the meeting, X’s HR head, Walter Gilbert, told employees that X planned to implement a broader and more robust promotion process that would include “light-hearted check-ins throughout the year.” A source who witnessed the meeting joked that most of the employee questions presented were “definitely about HR, promotions, pay raises/equity” and were not addressed.

Musk was absent, despite being present with Yaccarino in San Francisco. Instead, several other directors attended: Monique Pintarelli, head of advertising for the Americas, Nick Pickles, who leads policy, Kylie McRoberts, the company’s newest head of trust and security, and Haofei Wang, director of engineering.

While Yaccarino didn’t provide specific data about the ad business’ performance, Pintarelli told employees that X now has “more than 50% of our revenue attributable to display purposes,” which he described as “a huge change from the state of the business over the last few years.”

While this consensus may not provide many answers to X employees, Yaccarino stressed that the company will hold these meetings once a quarter, and said the team will “get an answer from Alan and me very soon.”

Alex Heath contributed reporting.