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There's been a sales staff exodus at Elon Musk's social media company X over the past month, according to a recent report.
The social media company formerly known as Twitter has faced a series of resignations from staff, including senior and junior employees, amid what has certainly been a chaotic month for the site and its owner, Claire Atkinson reported on Thursday. Sales staff began exiting the company shortly after X handed out bonus checks this month, according to the report.
X is operating with a skeleton staff at its office and the advertising division has been losing money, Atkinson reported.
A spokesperson for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday night, Musk went on a defiant rant during a bizarre interview with Andrew Sorkin at the Dealbook Summit. "Go fuck yourself," Musk told advertisers, including Disney, IBM, and Apple, who have fled the platform. Musk even took aim at Disney CEO Bob Iger directly. Iger had responded to a question earlier at the summit, explaining why Disney had pulled advertising from X.
Musk also said that he did not care if the advertisers withheld their dollars.
"The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we'll document it in great detail," the X owner said.
Musk's comments come after he boosted an antisemitic post on X earlier this month and faced an onslaught of criticism. (He later apologized for the post on Wednesday, calling it "foolish.")
At the time, some marketing leaders reportedly called on X CEO Linda Yaccarino to resign over Musk's post. One executive told Axios at the time that he'd texted Yaccarino warning her that she needed to leave the company and "save" her reputation.
Nonetheless, Yaccarino — the former ad boss at NBCUniversal — has expressed public support for Musk throughout the ordeal.
After Musk's interview on Wednesday, Yaccarino wrote on X that Musk "gave a wide ranging and candid interview."
"He also offered an apology, an explanation and an explicit point of view about our position," Yaccarino wrote on X. "X is enabling an information independence that's uncomfortable for some people. We're a platform that allows people to make their own decisions. And here's my perspective when it comes to advertising: X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you. To our partners who believe in our meaningful work -- Thank You."
