Twitter scraps opening event at Singapore HQ day after Elon Musk buyout

TWITTER has called off a planned event to officially open its expanded office space in Singapore, its Asia-Pacific hub, following a proposed US$44 billion buyout of the social media giant by billionaire Elon Musk.

The event, to open a 22,000 sq ft expansion to its existing office space in CapitaGreen, was to take place on Thursday (Apr 28). The launch was cancelled on Wednesday. Twitter did not give a reason for the change of plans.

It said it will soon share more about initiatives done in partnership with the government, focused on online safety, digital literacy and tech talent.

The company declined to comment when contacted by The Business Times.

News of Musk's proposed takeover of Twitter has prompted worries about the company's future and wider implications on the media landscape and politics.

The billionaire has vowed that the platform would become a bastion of free speech. Critics have however argued that the Tesla CEO has a poor track record of upholding those values when they do not align with his business interests.

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Concerns have surfaced about his increasingly conservative leanings and whether a change in Twitter ownership would allow former US president Donald Trump back onto the platform. Questions have also loomed over the platform’s future links to China, where Tesla derives significant revenue, but with which Twitter has a rocky relationship.

Some analysts expect Musk to make significant changes to Twitter’s business model. The billionaire has said he wants to add new product features and make algorithms open source to increase trust.

Twitter's chief executive Parag Agrawal told employees in a town hall that the direction of the company after the deal closes is uncertain, Reuters reported.

Agrawal said there are no plans for layoffs, said the report, which did not specify whether hiring plans are now stalled.

Twitter has made public its intention to invest further in its engineering centre in Singapore, which it launched in February 2020. At the time, it committed to hiring 65 staff.

In January, it said it would double the number of engineers to over 100 staff by 2023. The additional hires will span roles in engineering, data science, machine learning and product management. The Singapore centre is led by Silvanus Lee, who is the co-founder of artificial intelligence startup BasisAI, which was acquired by a Temasek company last year.

Thursday's planned event was supposed to have been attended by Singapore's Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo, who was slated to deliver opening remarks. BT understands that the minister had a closed-door meeting with Twitter executives on Thursday, as part of the ministry's regular engagements with the industry.