After months of long protracted legal battle, Elon Musk has finally completed the deal to take over Twitter just in time for the October 28th deadline date set by the Delaware Court of Chancery. According to CNBC, Musk has relieved CEO Parag Agrawal of his duties and finance chief Ned Segal. The Washington Post reports Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety, has also been fired by Musk.
On Wednesday, Musk, a prolific Twitter user, who makes jokes and memes, shared a video of him carrying a sink into Twitter’s San Francisco HQ and tweeted, “entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” On Thursday, Musk tweeted an open letter to Twitter Advertisers on “speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising.” Musk continued in the letter saying, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” To all but confirm the acquisition, Musk tweeted again on Friday: “the bird is freed.”
According to Insider, Agrawal received $38.7 million for being fired, Segal got $25.4 million, while Gadde got $12.5 million. Chief customer officer at Twitter, Sarah Personette, who tweeted about being excited for the future of Twitter under the leadership of Musk, has also been relieved of her duty and will get $11.2 million.
While it is not clear yet how Twitter will be under Musk, Bloomberg reports Musk will take over the CEO role but may give up the role in the long term. Musk also has plans to make a host of changes, including scrapping lifelong bans on accounts. Last week, there were reports that Musk was prepared to lay off 75 per cent of Twitter’s workforce, but a new report now says Musk has told Twitter employees the number is inaccurate. Musk discussed cutting Twitter’s staff with entrepreneur and friend Jason Calacanis by making a mandatory return-to-office rule, according to text messages obtained by Twitter’s lawyers.
“Day zero,” Calacanis texted Musk. “Sharpen your blades boys.” Requiring Twitter employees to return to offices would mean 20 per cent of the staff would leave voluntarily, Calacanis wrote. Calacanis also told Musk, “Twitter CEO is my dream job.”
Musk initially agreed to a deal to buy Twitter in April for $44 billion before changing his mind and officially trying to back out in May. In a twist, Musk changed his mind again in October after back-and-forth legal battles with Twitter lawyers, saying he would honour the original deal and complete the takeover. Now that the takeover is completed, Musk is expected to talk to Twitter employees on Friday and share his plans for the company.
