The Deal Is Done: Elon Musk Officially Owns Twitter
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk closed his blockbuster purchase of the social media service, thrusting Twitter into a new era. Mr. Musk, who runs the electric carmaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, has also promised other sweeping changes at Twitter. He is also one of Twitter’s most active users and has more than 109 million followers, began accumulating shares in the company this year.
Source: The-sun
According to CNBC, the deal was closed on Thursday night. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and head of legal, policy, and safety Vijaya Gadde have been fired, according to the Washington Post. Twitter and representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to relative questions from social media.
The drama started in early April, Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder when he bought a 9.2% share in the company. He was offered a seat on the board and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seemed excited about that. A few days later, Musk refused the board seat and made an offer to buy the entire company for $44 billion.
But Musk soon showed signs of buyer remorse, trying to back out of the deal by claiming Twitter had more bots than it allowed. In July, Twitter filed a lawsuit forcing Musk to either make the purchase or pay a $1 billion breakup fee. The parties can resolve the matter before having to appear in Delaware chancery court, but not before a set of texts by Musk to Agrawal and many other influencers were presented as part of the lawsuit.
Twitter employees have been not very happy about the new boss. After a report emerged that Musk plans to lay off up to 75% of the workforce, Twitter employees drafted an open letter demanding fair treatment under the new regime.
On Wednesday, the father of (at least) eight people visited Twitter's San Francisco office, bringing with them a porcelain sink. “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” Musk tweeted.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585341984679469056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1585341984679469056%7Ctwgr%5E947d30ca24f5931554777abb99d71eb5d408d4ac%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeednews.com%2Farticle%2Fkatienotopoulos%2Felon-musk-buys-twitter-sale-finalized
During the visit, Musk told the workers he had no intention of cutting 75% of them. The next day, in an apparent attempt to calm advertisers who are nervous that he will let the platform fall back into being a honeypot for assholes, the self-described “free speech absolutist” tweeted that the platform “obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
Musk also explained his reasons for buying the platform: “I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
The closing of the deal and the firing of top executives were not immediately communicated internally to Twitter employees. An employee revealed that they learned about the close of the deal by seeing a tweet from @PopCrave.
Source: Nytimes
Twitter executives who were fired on Thursday included Parag Agrawal, the chief executive; Ned Segal, chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, the top legal and policy executive; and Sean Edgett, general counsel, said the two have knowledge of the matter and at least one of the fired executives was escorted out of Twitter's offices.
Source: From left: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Mike Blake/Reuters; Eric Thayer for The New York Times
On Thursday, Elon Musk sought to quell advertiser concerns with an open letter suggesting some content moderation would continue.
“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” he wrote. “Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world.”