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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BREAKING NEWS · ADVANCED (C1-C2)

MASS SACKINGS
AT TWITTER AS
MUSK TAKES
OVER
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1 Warm up

Discuss the questions in pairs or small groups.

1. Have you ever been fired from your job? Do you know anybody who has?
2. Why do you think new bosses often fire large numbers of employees when they take control of a
company?
3. Did you use Twitter before Musk took over? If so, are you going to continue to use the platform?
4. Do you think Musk made a mistake in purchasing Twitter? Why/why not?
5. Twitter has been losing both money and users since the takeover. Will this continue, or will it
become more successful again?

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2 Pre-listening task: vocabulary focus

Match the words below with the correct definitions.
accrue (v) bail (v) interest (n) lay somebody off (v)
lobby (n) retain (v) revenue (n) severance (n)

1. a group of people who try to influence politicians on a particular issue

2. continue to keep something
3. the extra money that you pay back when you borrow money or that you
receive when you invest money
4. the money that a company receives from its business
5. increase over a period of time
6. the act of ending somebody’s work contract
7. (informal) to leave a place, especially quickly
8. stop employing somebody because there is not enough work for them to do

3 Listening for general information

Listen to the News report about the changes happening at Twitter and write the items mentioned
next to the things they relate to.

a. The percentage of staff that Elon Musk is planning to fire:

b. The time of day at which Twitter employees will be notified that they’re losing their jobs:
c. The amount of interest (in dollars) that Twitter is going to have to pay each year on its debt:
d. When the senior notes are due: and
e. The percentage of capital (including accrued interest) at which Twitter is going to buy back the
senior notes:

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4 Listening comprehension

Listen to the report again. Answer the questions true, false or not given.

1. Twitter employees will find out whether they still have a job or not via email.

2. Ed Ludlow is a reporter for the Global Business Team of Bloomberg News.

3. Staff were fired in New York, but in Singapore and India Twitter employees retained their jobs.

4. Most of the cuts have involved regular workers, with middle management safe from the mass
sackings.

5. Some of those who have lost their jobs will receive financial compensation.

6. Despite the cuts, advertisers are sticking with Twitter for now.

7. The stated justification for the layoffs is to solve the debt problems the company has been
facing.

8. Twitter’s revenue has already suffered.

Glossary

senior note: a type of agreement by a government or company to pay you interest on the money you
have lent that gives investors a higher-priority claim and is repaid before other debts when a company
becomes bankrupt
restricted stock unit: a way for employers to grant company shares to employees, which may be
dependent on the length of employment or performance goals

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5 Reading: general vocabulary

Part A: Match the words in bold with the correct definitions.

1. As the singer climbed onto the stage, ripples of excitement spread through the crowd. (n)

2. Apple unleashed the iPhone on the world in 2007. (v)

3. Board games were once seen as a niche lifestyle choice, but are now increasingly popular. (adj.)

4. As you get older, youth can seem transient. (adj.)

5. The film adaptation of the novel relegates an interesting examination of difficult topics to a familiar
tale of heroes battling evil. (v)

6. Many choices in our lives are now influenced by invisible algorithms. (n)

7. My favourite time of day is just before sunset, when the light is waning. (v)

8. When we were children, my younger brother would often emulate me. (v)

9. Some online commenters have voiced concerns about the demise of democracy in many Western
countries. (n)

10. Our football team’s sponsor pulled out of a new deal after one of the players became involved in
a scandal. (phr. v)

a. the end or failure of an institution, an idea, a company, etc.

b. appealing to only a small section of the population

c. try to do something as well as somebody else because you admire them

d. to become gradually weaker or less important

e. give somebody or something a lower or less important position, rank, etc. than before

f. a feeling that gradually spreads through a person or group of people

g. a set of rules that must be followed when solving a particular problem

h. withdraw from something or stop being involved in it

i. release something into the public domain

j. continuing for only a short time

Part B: Complete the short text below with the words and phrases from the above exercise. You may
need to change the tense of the word or phrase.

I’m writing a science fiction novel inspired by recent events. It’s about a world in which the sun is
1
, and yet people are more concerned with a social network that has dominated their
2 3
daily lives. Every decision they make is governed by , effectively complex
human interactions to a game of chasing "likes" and ratings. Each person has their own ranking system,

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4
which the way in which we review films and other media, with lower-rated people being
unable to access free healthcare and the like. Towards the end of the novel, the software company in
5
charge of the social network a new product on the public: an app that measures
happiness. In order to qualify as "happy" a user has to complete a series of meaningless tasks that give
6
rewards, such as a brief bonus to your personal rating. Some younger users become
7
addicted to the app, and a scandal follows that results in the main advertisers , leaving
8
the software company bankrupt. In the last chapter, the sun’s is impossible to ignore,
9
and yet people still remain lost in their phones, unable to connect with reality. Finally, a
10
app developed by an independent group begins to cause throughout society, as it
tells people to look at the sky and confront their fears. I’m not sure if I’ll change the ending – maybe it
would work better without the last part!

Discuss these questions in pairs.

1. Do you think that dating websites and apps that use algorithms to match users are more reliable
than meeting somebody in real life?
2. Will TikTok’s success prove to be transient, or will it dominate the online world for decades, like
Facebook has?

6 Reading for general understanding

You are going to read a text about our perception of reality. Scan the text quickly and match the
opening sentences with the correct paragraphs. One sentence cannot be matched to any of the
paragraphs in the text and should be marked ‘Not given’.

1. Content originated in the world of web design and marketing, replacing the traditional term – copy
– to describe the words used to sell a product or service.
2. According to TikTok itself, the app isn’t a social network at all – rather, an entertainment platform.
3. Twitter is one of the world’s most popular social networks, with a userbase of around 450 million
active participants.
4. When Elon Musk announced plans to purchase Twitter, he caused ripples rather than tidal waves
in online communities.
5. Is TikTok’s success the cause or result of the decline of social media?
6. As Twitter floundered, Meta – Facebook’s new parent company – announced mass-sackings of its
own, with losses apparently forcing job cuts despite recent attempts to compete with rivals such
as TikTok.

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The death of the social network

Does the rise of content spell the end of communication?

A. Most of us were preoccupied with more pressing concerns. There were, of

course, predictions of chaos and destruction should Musk succeed, but Twitter had been waning for some years,
and besides – how much damage could a shrewd businessman do to one of the world’s largest social networks?
The answer, it emerged, is quite a lot, rapidly accelerating the demise of the platform as advertisers pulled out
and users left in droves. Some began searching for a new online home, settling on relatively niche choices like
Mastodon or Tribel. Others vowed to go down with the ship, or claimed that Musk’s free-for-all approach would
strengthen rather than weaken the appeal of the social network.

B. Earlier in 2022, Facebook had unleashed a new redesign with the aim of emulating
the Chinese video-sharing app’s increasing popularity, and Instagram – also owned by Meta – also announced
TikTok-like updates. Those changes were ultimately scrapped, proving wildly unpopular with its existing userbase.
With the big three building up debt, losing members and alienating advertisers, is TikTok now the only successful
social network?

C. Instead of being a place in which users interact with friends and family, the purpose
of TikTok is to share short-form videos, acting as a successor to the short-lived Vine or as an abridged version of
YouTube rather than an update on Facebook or Twitter. The app, which appeals to younger users in particular,
relies on algorithms to promote engagement by nudging viewers into addictive streaming habits. Initially launched
as a way in which to share music videos, it was brought by a Chinese company and rebranded, with focus shifting
to watching passively rather than interacting.

D. Have we lost interest in communicating with friends online, or do we use

different methods? Will text-based social networks be obsolete within a decade or two? The answer may lie with
a new concept that has pervaded our lives, a concept that shadows the meteoric rise of TikTok – that of content.
Previously, a book was a book, a film a film and a blog post an informative opinion piece. Now, all of the above
is content. The tweets you share on Twitter, the photos of your family holiday you uploaded to Facebook – all
content, to be consumed and forgotten instantly, like junk food.

E. Content was distinct from art and entertainment, in that it only existed in
order to make money for somebody else. In its new form, the word "content" relegates everything we do online
to something lesser, transient. Content is easily forgotten, and yet must be constantly generated in an endless
cycle. The idea may come from the way in which we scroll through our phones, or the apps that made it easy to
"like" a video or share it with a click rather than posting a comment. An image requires less effort to process than
a paragraph, and as such, some believe that we will move away from word-based social networks entirely. Will
content swallow us all in a shallow sea of likes, or will human interaction triumph? We are a social species, after
all – perhaps we just haven’t created the perfect social network yet.

Sources: bbc.com, theguardian.com, cnn.com, youtube.com

7 Reading comprehension

Read the article again. Complete the sentences with between ONE to THREE words from the article.

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1. Some predicted should Musk be successful in taking over Twitter.

2. Although many have left already, there have been those who have
to stay on Twitter until the very end.

3. Updates to Instagram proved with users, resulting in the changes

being reversed.

4. In light of the difficulties faced by Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, is TikTok now the most
social network?

5. The purpose of TikTok – according to the app itself – is to share ,

rather than to serve as a place of social interaction.

6. The app’s primary audience is .

7. Will we stop communicating through text, preferring videos or audio messages? Have we lost all
interest in talking to online?

8. Content is a new term for the things we on Twitter, or upload to

Facebook, whether they be photos or tweets.

9. By labelling our creative output "content", are we reducing the things we make to something
?

10. Although content is popular at the moment, we are a , and perhaps

human interaction is something necessary for us.

8 Talking point

In pairs or small groups, discuss the following questions.

1. Do you spend less time using social networks than you used to?
2. Do you have a TikTok account? Why/why not?
3. In your opinion, are films, novels and television series ‘content’?
4. Why do you think that, in a world of almost 8 billion people, there are only a handful of popular
social networks?
5. Would you be willing to try a new social network, such as one of the alternatives to Twitter
mentioned in the article?
6. Do you think that, in the future, people will stop using text-based social networks, sharing only
images, videos or audio clips?
7. Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders of Twitter, is said to be developing a new alternative to his
old social network called Bluesky. Do you think this will become more popular than Twitter?
Why/why not?

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9 Additional practice: vocabulary

Complete the sentences with the missing words from the list below.

accrued bailing interest laid off lobby retain revenue severance

1. Social network users are in large numbers following the changes to privacy laws.

2. My grandfather was after working in the restaurant for thirty years.

3. If you inherit a large amount of money, it might be wise to place it in a savings account to generate
some .

4. We’re hoping to our rights to live in Germany after the referendum.

5. Some groups are putting pressure on the government to give tax breaks to oil
companies.

6. My Aunt a great deal of wealth over her life. When she died, she left most of it
to charity.

7. The pay should keep us going for a few months, at least. Hopefully I’ll find a new
job soon!

8. Our has declined over the last few months, but we’re still making a healthy profit.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · ADVANCED (C1-C2)

MASS SACKINGS AT TWITTER AS MUSK TAKES OVER

Transcripts

3. Listening for general information

Newsreader: In the next few minutes Twitter employees will know whether or not they still have a
job. Apparently, Elon Musk has said to cut about half its staff.

Newsreader: Employees will be notified through an email that they’ll get at 9am Pacific Time - noon
here in New York.

Newsreader: Ed Ludlow joins us now on it. Ed, what can we really expect?

Ed Ludlow: Yeah, I mean that process has already started in other parts of the world. Overnight,
staff were laid off in Asia; places like Singapore and India - I’m told by sources that
most of middle management has been cut from the Emir region - people at senior
manager and director level, and then New York City is already underway from a layoffs
perspective.

Ed Ludlow: I think New York City is interesting and so far as sources tell me that those laid off will
be retained as non-working employees through February 2nd and they will get a pretty
significant severance package but they’ll stay just long enough to go through another
RSU cliff, in other words, a restricted stock unit award between now and February, but
this is severe: in a document that I’ve seen shared with those laid off does confirm the
numbers: 50 percent.

Reporter: Ed, is the story today the fact that we’re seeing significant layoffs or is the story today
that advertisers are bailing?

Ed Ludlow: I think it’s advertisers and I think it’s the debt, right? Why are we doing layoffs? You
know, the stated justification is to put Twitter onto a path that makes the company
healthy, but think about the debt that they’re going to have to service from this point
on. I think we’ve reported the payments of interest around a billion dollars a year.
What you’re seeing on your screen is the chart of the senior notes due in 2027 and
2030.

Ed Ludlow: We know that Twitter is already going to start buying back those at 101 percent of
the capital including interest that’s been accrued - but now you’re seeing top line
erosion, and Musk reacted right? He tweeted this morning that Twitter is already in
this moment seeing a hit to its revenue, and to his mind or based on what Musk said,
it’s because advertisers are being influenced by lobby groups over content moderation
concerns.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · ADVANCED (C1-C2)

MASS SACKINGS AT TWITTER AS MUSK TAKES OVER

Key

1. Warm up

5 mins.
Tell the students they will be listening to a report about the recent Twitter takeover and sackings, and reading an
article focusing on the future of social media. The discussion activity is suitable for pairs or small groups.

2. Pre-listening task: vocabulary focus

5 mins.
Ask students to match the words with the correct definitions. Monitor the task and elicit answers.

1. lobby (n) 2. retain (v) 3. interest (n) 4. revenue (n)

5. accrue (v) 6. severance (n) 7. bail (v) 8. lay somebody off (v)

3. Listening for general information

5 mins.
Individually or in pairs, ask students to listen to the report and match the items they hear mentioned with the
correct answer.

a. 50 b. 9 c. 1 billion
d. 2027 ≀ 2030 e. 101

4. Listening comprehension

5 mins.
Students should answer the questions true, false or not given.

1. True.
2. Not given. We are only introduced to Ed by name, without any further information on his position.
3. False. Staff in Singapore and India were laid off overnight.
4. False. Most of middle management have been cut in some regions, such as the Emir region.
5. True. In New York City, staff will receive a significant severance package.
6. False. Advertisers are bailing.
7. False. The stated justification is to put Twitter on a path that makes the company healthy.
8. True.

5. Reading: general vocabulary

10 mins.
Students should match the words in bold with the correct definitions. Ensure students know how to pronounce
target vocabulary. For Part B, students should read through the short dialogue and choose the most suitable word
for each space. Students may need to change the form of the word. For the discussion activity, students can
complete the task in pairs or groups.

1. → f. 2. → i. 3. → b. 4. → j. 5. → e.
6. → g. 7. → d. 8. → c. 9. → a. 10. → h.

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MASS SACKINGS AT TWITTER AS MUSK TAKES OVER

Part B

1. waning 2. algorithms 3. relegating 4. emulates

5. unleashes 6. transient 7. pulling out 8. demise
9. niche 10. ripples

6. Reading for general understanding

5 mins.
Ask students to skim through the text quickly to match the opening sentences to the correct paragraphs. You may
want to do this as a strictly-timed exercise.

A. When Elon Musk announced plans to purchase Twitter, he caused ripples rather than tidal waves in online
communities.
B. As Twitter floundered, Meta – Facebook’s new parent company – announced mass-sackings of its own, with
losses apparently forcing job cuts despite recent attempts to compete with rivals such as TikTok.
C. According to TikTok itself, the app isn’t a social network at all – rather, an entertainment platform.
D. Is TikTok’s success the cause or result of the decline of social media? What does it say about our society?
E. Content originated in the world of web design and marketing, replacing the traditional term – copy – to describe
the words used to sell a product or service.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63539246
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/09/twitter-elon-musk-blue-check-verification
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/11/tech/twitter-chaos-musk/index.html

7. Reading comprehension

10 mins.
Students should complete the task individually or in pairs. Students should read the article again, and complete
the sentences with between one to three words from the text itself.

1. chaos and destruction 2. vowed

3. wildly unpopular 4. successful
5. short-form videos 6. younger users
7. friends and family 8. share
9. lesser 10. social species

8. Talking point

10 mins.
students to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups.

9. Additional practice: vocabulary

5-6 mins.
Students should fill in the gaps in the sentences in pairs or individually. Ensure students know how to pronounce
target vocabulary.

1. bailing 2. laid off 3. interest 4. retain

5. lobby 6. accrued 7. severance 8. revenue

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