SolarCity and Tesla used the word that should freak out a lot of their employees

It's official, the two public parts of Elon Musk's empireare combining.SolarCity announced Monday that it has agreed to a $2.6 billion deal to be acquired by Tesla, ending a process that began in late June.While a post on SolarCity's blog was upbeat, sayingthat the firms will create "the worlds only vertically integrated sustainable energy company," it also used the one word that should worry both Tesla and SolarCity employees: synergies."We expect to achieve cost synergies of $150 million in the first full year after closing," said the post from SolarCity.Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and a board member of SolarCity, has also been trumpeting that ability of the combined companies to be leaner and work well together.Whilethe word itself appears benign, itshould make employees nervous because synergies mean cost cutting andat least some of the cost cutting will come in the form of layoffs.According to theirannual reports, SolarCity employed 15,273 people at the end of 2015, while Tesla had13,058.Here'sa very rough, back of the envelope calculation that should be taken with a grain of salt illustratingthe effect synergies could have on employees at these two companies.Assuming half of those potential synergies$75 millioncome from reduced headcount and each worker costs the company$75,000, we couldsee around1,000 employees let go.The SolarCity post did not specify a headcount reduction, and the deal iscertainly about much more than that, but it is safe to assumesome employees should get a bit nervous.SEE ALSO:Tesla is buying SolarCity for $2.6 billionJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Scientists just collected a mysterious 'purple orb' at the bottom of the ocean, but no one could anticipate what happened next
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