Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, took ownership of Twitter and sacked its senior executives late Thursday, putting one of the world’s most important platforms for global discourse in the hands of the world’s richest man.
Musk sacked CEO Parag Agrawal, as well as the company’s chief financial officer and director of safety, according to the Washington Post and CNBC, citing unnamed sources.
Agrawal went to court to hold Tesla CEO Elon Musk accountable for the terms of a takeover deal he had hoped to avoid. The reports came just hours before Musk’s court-ordered deadline to conclude his on-again, off-again deal to purchase the social media network.
Earlier in the day, Musk tweeted that he was purchasing Twitter “because it is crucial to the future of civilisation to have a shared digital town square, where a wide variety of opinions can be argued in a healthy manner.”
Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange announced a pending order to ban Twitter trading before Friday’s session.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the departure of its senior executives, but the platform’s co-founder Biz Stone praised the three men for their “combined contribution to Twitter” in a tweet.
“Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each.”
‘Chief Twit’
Musk signaled the deal was on track this week by changing his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit” and posting a video of himself walking into the company’s California headquarters carrying a sink.
“Let that sink in!” he quipped.
He even shared a picture of himself socializing at a coffee bar at Twitter headquarters earlier in the day on Thursday. Musk said during a recent Tesla earnings call that he was “excited” about the Twitter deal even though he and investors are “overpaying.”
The transaction concludes a protracted back-and-forth between the billionaire and the social network.
Musk attempted to back out of the Twitter agreement soon after his unsolicited bid was approved in April, saying in July that he was misled by Twitter about the amount of false “bot” accounts – charges that the company denied.
Twitter, for its part, sought to demonstrate Musk was making up reasons to walk away merely because he changed his mind. After Musk attempted to terminate the transaction, Twitter launched a lawsuit to hold Musk to the deal. With a trial on the horizon, the erratic millionaire capitulated and resurrected his takeover plot.
Twitter free-for-all? Some employees who would prefer not to work for Musk have already left, said a worker who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak more freely.
“But a portion of people, including me, are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now,” the employee said.
The idea of Musk running Twitter has alarmed activists who fear a surge in harassment and misinformation, with Musk himself known for trolling other Twitter users. But Musk said he realizes Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.”
Musk has vowed to dial content moderation back to a bare minimum, and is expected to clear the way for former US president Donald Trump to return to the platform.The then-president was blocked due to concerns he would ignite more violence like the deadly attack on the Capitol in Washington to overturn his election loss.
