Elon Musk wants Twitter to have nearly four billion users

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, wants to sign up half the world's population to Twitter if his offered deal goes through, Bloomberg reported. Currently, the social media platform has 229 million users. 

Musk, who offered to buy out Twitter in April, has himself put the deal on hold after pointing out concerns that the spam or fake account numbers on the platform are much higher than the company claims. Recently, we reported how the Twitter board wanted the company's shareholders to vote 'for the deal,' but the world's richest person has kept his options open to back out from the purchase. 

What is Musk doing about the Twitter deal? 

Speaking from the U.S. via videolink at the Qatar Economic Forum in the middle of the night, Musk said that he was awaiting resolution on a few "unresolved matters," including the precise number of bots on the platform.

Calling it a "sensitive matter," limiting what he could say about it publicly, Musk stated that the transaction couldn't be completed before the issue was cleared up. However, he did not completely endorse the deal either, raising speculation that he is using the bot numbers as an excuse to eke out a discount on his purchase. 

Musk looks keen to complete the buyout as he also laid out his vision of "driving the product" at Twitter, even though he did not plan to be the CEO of the company. At the forum, Musk said that he aimed at signing up half the world to Twitter if his deal went through, which is a much bigger target to achieve than the one billion he shared with Twitter employees just last week, Bloomberg said in its report. 

While his plans for social media are expansive, Musk does not share the same outlook for Tesla, his electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing company. 

The layoffs at Tesla and support for Dogecoin

Following his own "super bad feeling" about the U.S. economy, Musk said that it was time to slow down Tesla's expansion. According to Musk, the company had grown very fast on the salaried side, and over the next three months, would reduce its workforce by 10 percent. The company has paused hiring across all its global locations and even canceled three scheduled hiring events in China following the announcement. 

Musk had cited that Tesla was overstaffed in many areas and but also had said that the headcount at the company at the Austin, Texas-based EV company would grow. Clarifying the prevailing confusion,  Musk has said that the total headcount would shrink by as much as 3.5 percent, but the number of hourly staff at the company would grow. However, this move would not impact those "building cars, battery packs or installing solar", Musk had written in an email, Reuters reported. Last week, we reported that staff at senior-level positions across departments were being laid-off. 

Musk even used the platform to reiterate his support for cryptocurrencies, even as the markets have seen some painful days in the past weeks. Musk said that he supports Dogecoin since many "not that wealthy" people around him have encouraged him to buy and support Dogecoin.

He denied that he had ever asked people to invest in Dogecoin but said that Tesla and even his other company, SpaceX, will accept Dogecoin for purchasing merchandise.