Business Billionaire Elon Musk has officially taken over Twitter and reportedly fired several top executives after a fraught $44bn deal was finally secured.
The Tesla chief tweeted that “the bird is freed” referencing the company’s iconic logo after finally closing the deal following months of legal wrangling.
As the company passed into the hands of the Tesla chief, Twitter’s former CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal were fired, sources claimed.
Musk has also fired the head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett, who belongs to the company’s general counsel, inside sources told The Washington Post.
Following the takeover, the billionaire changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit.”
Agrawal previously went to court to hold Musk to the terms of a deal he had tried to escape.
The takeover came hours before the court-appointed deadline for Musk to seal his on-again, off-again deal to purchase the social media network.
Musk had previously explained the reasons he wanted to take over Twitter.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” he said.
“I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money.
“I did it to try and help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”
Meanwhile, the platform’s co-founder Biz Stone thanked Agrawal, Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde for their “collective contribution to Twitter.”
“Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each.”
It was also revealed early Friday that Musk reportedly plans to assume the role of Twitter CEO while still leading Tesla and SpaceX, according to Bloomberg.
The news outlet indicated, citing a source, that “life bans” from the platform could also be reversed.Advertisement
This comes as the public has been given a sneak peek into Twitter’s headquarters as Musk was swarmed by employees and colleagues.
The billionaire unexpectedly showed up at the office on Wednesday while carrying a sink, suggesting that his impending ownership is something that needed to “sink in.”
On Thursday, American author Walter Isaacson snapped a photo inside the Twitter headquarters’ coffee bar showing Musk speaking to a crowd of people.
The closure of the deal comes after a long back-and-forth between the billionaire and the platform.Advertisement
Musk offered to buy the company earlier this April but he then tried to back out of the deal.
The SpaceX CEO cited issues with privacy and claimed that Twitter was lying about the number of bots and spam accounts active on the platform- allegations that have been rejected by Twitter.
In response, Twitter sued Musk on July 12 in an effort to force the merger to go through and argued that Musk violated his commitment to buy the company.
A few months later, the Delaware court system got involved and a judge marked Friday as the deadline to finalize the deal.
But it appears that Musk changed his mind and signalled the deal was back in.
Musk also previously vowed to reverse former President Donald Trump’s Twitter ban after becoming the social media platform’s new head honcho.
Musk said that barring the 45th president from the social media platform was a “mistake” that “alienated much of the country.”
