Elon Musk has acquired control of Twitter Inc., dismissing top executives he had accused of deceiving him, and offering scant explanation of how he plans to carry out the ambitious goals he has set forth for the significant social media network.
According to those familiar with the situation, Musk fired Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of law and policy Vijaya Gadde today.
He had claimed that they had misled him and Twitter’s investors over the prevalence of phoney accounts on the social media site.
The sources added that Agrawal and Segal were removed out of Twitter’s San Francisco offices where they were present when the agreement was finalised.
Requests for response from Twitter, Musk, and the executives were not immediately fulfilled.
Tesla Inc.’s CEO has stated that, even as he curbs censorship, he wants to “fight” spam bots on Twitter, make the algorithms that determine how information is exposed to its users public, and stop the social media site from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.
Musk, however, has not provided specifics on how he intends to do all of this or who would lead the company. He has stated that he intends to make job cuts, which has caused the 7500 or so employees of Twitter to worry about their future.
Additionally, he stated today that he bought Twitter “to try to benefit humanity, whom I adore,” rather than to increase his wealth.
The $US44 billion ($NZ82 billion) acquisition is the conclusion of an extraordinary story with many turns and turns that raised questions about Musk’s ability to consummate the deal. It all started on April 4, when Musk revealed that he was the San Francisco company’s top stakeholder with a 9.2% stake.
The world’s richest person then agreed to join Twitter’s board, only to baulk at the last minute and offer to buy the company instead for $US54. 20 ($NZ93) per share, an offer that Twitter was unsure whether to interpret as another of Musk’s cannabis jokes.
Musk’s offer was genuine, and the two parties eventually came to an agreement at his estimated amount over the course of just one weekend later in April.
Without performing any due diligence on the company’s proprietary information, as is normal in an acquisition, this occurred.
Following those weeks, Musk experienced second thoughts. He expressed public displeasure that he thought Twitter’s estimate of less than 5% of its monetarily viable daily active users for spam accounts was drastically low. Then, according to his attorneys, Twitter ignored his demands for information on the matter.
Due to the tension, Musk informed Twitter on July 8 that he was ending their agreement because Twitter had deceived him over the bots and had not worked with him. Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk in Delaware, where the business is incorporated, four days later to compel him to finalise the transaction.
By that time, shares of social media businesses and the whole stock market had fallen due to worries that the US economy might enter a recession as a result of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases to combat inflation. Twitter said that Musk was suffering from buyer’s remorse and wanted to back out of the agreement because he believed he overpaid.
Musk sent out the tweet “let that sink in” after entering Twitter’s offices with a broad grin and a porcelain sink yesterday.
He altered his Twitter profile’s description to Chief Twit.
Additionally, he attempted to allay employee worries about impending mass layoffs and gave advertisers assurances that his prior criticism of Twitter’s content moderation policies wouldn’t diminish the platform’s appeal.
Twitter certainly can’t turn into a place where anyone can say anything without repercussions! In today’s open letter to marketers, Musk stated.
Musk said in May he would reverse the ban on Donald Trump, who was removed after the attack on the US Capitol, although the former president said he won’t return to the platform. Instead, he released Truth Social, his own social media application.
Elon Musk, aka “Chief Twit,” completes the Twitter acquisition and fires executives.
About Author
