Agrawal and Segal were claimed to have been hauled out of Twitter’s San Francisco offices as the acquisition completed.
Elon Musk took over Twitter on Thursday, sacking key executives and leaving no doubt about how he plans to reach the ambitious goals he has set for the powerful social media network.
Even as he curbs censorship, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he wants to “fight” spam bots on Twitter, make the algorithms that decide how information is shown to its users public, and keep the network from becoming an echo chamber for hatred and division.
Musk, however, has not provided specifics on how he would do all of this or who will lead the firm. He has said that he intends to lay off staff, leaving Twitter’s roughly 7,500 employees concerned about their future. He also said on Thursday that he purchased Twitter not to gain more money, but rather to “try to serve mankind, whom I adore.”
According to persons familiar with the situation, Musk fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Manager Financial Officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde. He accused them of deceiving him and Twitter investors about the amount of bogus accounts on the social media network.
According to the sources, Agrawal and Segal were at Twitter’s San Francisco offices when the transaction completed and were taken out.
Requests for comment from Twitter, Musk, and the executives were not immediately returned.
‘The Chief Twit’
Musk came into Twitter’s offices on Wednesday with a broad smile and a porcelain sink, tweeting “let that sink in” before sealing the $44-billion (approximately Rs. 3,37,465 crore) deal. Musk isn’t hesitant to engage in theatrics, and he was carrying a porcelain sink. He altered his Twitter profile description to “Chief Twit.”
He also attempted to assuage staff worries of mass layoffs and reassured advertisers that his previous criticism of Twitter’s content control procedures would not affect its attractiveness.
“Obviously, Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything may be uttered without consequence!” Musk said this in an open letter to marketers published on Thursday.
Musk has said that he views Twitter as a platform for developing a “super app” that would include services ranging from money transfers to retail and ride-hailing.
“In my opinion, the long-term potential for Twitter is an order of magnitude bigger than its present valuation,” Musk stated on Tesla’s analyst call on October 19.
However, Twitter is having difficulty engaging its most engaged users, who are critical to the company’s success. These “heavy tweeters” account for fewer than 10% of all monthly users yet create 90% of all tweets and half of all worldwide income.
Musk also said in May that he will lift the ban on Donald Trump, who was banned after the assault on the US Capitol, however the former US president has stated that he would not return to the platform. Instead, he has created his own social networking app, Truth Social.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Reuters.
A saga
The transaction marks the climax of a fascinating narrative full of twists and turns that cast doubt on Musk’s ability to execute the transaction. It all started on April 4, when Musk revealed a 9.2 percent interest in the firm, making him the company’s biggest stakeholder.
The world’s wealthiest person then agreed to join Twitter’s board of directors, only to back out at the last minute and offer to acquire the firm for $54.20 per share (approximately Rs. 4,320), an offer that Twitter was unclear whether to perceive as another of Musk’s pot jokes.
Musk’s offer was genuine, and the two parties signed an agreement at the amount he recommended in only one weekend later in April. This occurred in the absence of Musk doing any due diligence on the company’s proprietary information, as is normal in an acquisition.
Musk had second thoughts in the weeks that followed. He openly said that he felt Twitter’s spam accounts were substantially larger than Twitter’s estimate of fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users, as revealed in regulatory filings. His attorneys then accused Twitter of failing to respond to his demands for information on the topic.
Following the squabble, Musk informed Twitter on July 8 that he was cancelling their agreement on the grounds that Twitter deceived him about the bots and refused to work with him. Four days later, Twitter filed a lawsuit in Delaware, where the firm is established, to compel Musk to execute the transaction.
Shares of social networking firms and the larger stock market had already plummeted on fears that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate rises to combat inflation would drive the US economy into recession. Musk was accused of having buyer’s remorse on Twitter, claiming he wanted out of the acquisition because he believed he overpaid.
According to most legal observers, Twitter has the stronger arguments and will most likely win in court. Even when Twitter’s former security head Peiter Zatko came forth as a whistleblower in August, alleging that the business neglected to report security and data privacy flaws, their opinion did not alter.
On October 4, just as Musk was about to be deposed by Twitter’s attorneys in preparation for the commencement of their trial later that month, he made another U-turn and volunteered to finish the agreement as promised. He did so only one day before an October 28 deadline set by a Delaware court to avoid going to trial.
Twitter shares closed at $53.86 (approximately Rs. 4,430) in New York on Thursday, up 0.3 percent from the $54.20 per share purchase price. On Friday, the stock will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
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