The $44 billion deal of the tycoon of South African origin to acquire Twitter, after a “novel” of six months during which Musk tried to back down and Twitter sued them to enforce the terms of their purchase, officially closed this Thursday, October 27.
Within hours of taking office, the world’s richest person promptly fired several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal; CFO Ned Segal; Vijaya Gadde, Director of Legal, Policy, Trust and Safety at Twitter; and General Counsel Sean Edgett, according to reports WSJ.
The acquisition of Elon Musk ends Twitter’s nearly nine-year history as a Wall Street-listed companyafter it went public in November 2013.
Neither Musk nor Twitter commented on the layoffs.
Only the tycoon wrote on the social network that is now his property: “The bird is released”, in an apparent reference to Twitter, which has a blue bird as its logo.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
A story with a happy ending?
Musk first agreed to buy Twitter in April for $44 billion, then threatened to back out of the deal, before changing course again this month and pledging to go through with the acquisition.
When he wanted to get out of the deal, he said he was doing it because the company’s officials, headed by Agrawal, allegedly they lied about the number of bot and fake accounts on the platform.
It is not clear, until this morning of October 28, who will occupy the positions that were left vacant by the departures of the executives.
In addition to Twitter, Musk co-founded and runs Tesla, the world’s most valuable car company, and rocket company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), among other firms.
Musk, who was Twitter’s largest single shareholder before buying, said in April that he would pay for the acquisition primarily with cash, with some contributed by other investors and with $13 billion of debt.
Twitter, Elon Musk and absolute freedom?
Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, has vowed to limit content moderation in favor of free speech.
However, that approach it risks causing conflict with some advertisers, politicians and users who would prefer a more moderate platform.
In a message to advertisers posted on his account Thursday, Musk said he bought the company to “have a common digital public square, where a wide range of opinions can be debated in a healthy way.”
He said Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hell, where you can say anything without consequence.”
Musk said the platform should be “warm and welcoming for everyone” and suggested it could allow users to “choose the desired experience according to their preferences, just as they can choose, for example, to watch movies or play video games.”
Now read:
Now yes, confirmed: Elon Musk says on Twitter that he bought the social network
Meta ordered to sell Giphy, the world’s largest GIF “factory”
Kanye West buys Parler, the far-right social network
