Billionaire Elon Musk has completed his $44b takeover of Twitter. And, as the official owner of the micro-blogging platform, Musk’s first moves included firing CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett, and head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde, several news outlets including the New York Times, CNBC, and the Washington Post have reported. On Friday morning, what can be called confirmation from Musk’s side, he tweeted “the bird is freed”.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
After Musk revealed his intention to buy Twitter, there’s been instances revealing that Tesla CEO and Agrawal’s relationship turned sour, which appeared promising at the beginning. Musk, in fact, tweeted poop emojis at the CEO. Reports have it that things weren’t much better in private as well.
A Delaware Chancery Court judge had given time to Musk until Friday to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the micro-blogging platform or face a court battle with Twitter. Earlier this month, Elon Musk revived his Twitter deal saying that he would carry forward the original deal that he promised.
After initiating and signing the Twitter takeover deal in April, Musk tried to end his contract to acquire the social media platform, alleging that the company had misled him about the size of its user base and the prevalence of automated accounts known as bots. When he first revealed plans to buy Twitter, he said, he wanted to remove the bot accounts on the platform and preserve it as a venue for free speech.
In its response to Musk’s withdrawal, Twitter sued him in Delaware Chancery Court, forcing him to go forward with the purchase. A trial was scheduled to begin on October 17. Following this, just weeks before a court trial was due to start, Musk took a U-turn.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that Elon Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three-quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers after he takes over the company. However, on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that he is not planning to cut 75% of the staff.
In a tweet on Thursday, Musk said he didn’t buy the firm “to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love”. Musk further explained why he is interested in acquiring the social media platform adding that he doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape” where anything can be said with no consequences. “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation 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.
