Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has taken ownership of Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) with brutal efficiency in a deal that cost him $44 billion, firing top executives in the process.
In a tweet confirming the takeover, Mr Musk tweeted “the bird is freed” and later said, “let the good times roll”. Meanwhile, the fired top executives include the Twitter boss, Parag Agrawal. Mr Agrawal and two other executives were subsequently escorted out of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
The completion of the deal brings to an end months of legal wrangling but it has prompted questions about the platform’s future direction. A filing was also made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission confirming the takeover.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone appeared to confirm the executives’ departure. In a tweet, he thanked all three for their “collective contribution to Twitter”, calling them “massive talents” and “beautiful humans”.
Meanwhile, Bret Taylor – who had served as Twitter’s chairman since last November – updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate that he was no longer in the post.
It is not clear yet whether the clear out of senior management is the forerunner to company-wide job cuts. Earlier reports suggested 75% of staff at the social media company were set to lose their jobs but those reports were “inaccurate”, according to Ross Gerber, a shareholder in both Twitter and Mr Musk’s other company Tesla.
“There are a lot of talented people at Twitter, especially on the engineering side and they want to retain as much of that talent as possible,” Mr Gerber said.
Mr Musk, a self-styled “free speech absolutist”, has been critical of Twitter’s management and its moderation policies.
Earlier this week, Mr Musk stated that he doesn’t want the platform to become an echo chamber for hate and division. “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” he tweeted.
Mr Musk also said he would reverse bans on suspended users, which could include former US President Donald Trump, who was excluded following the Capitol riot in January 2021. At the time, Twitter said there was a risk Mr Trump would incite further violence. But Mr Musk has described the ban as “foolish”.
There are fears that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be invited back to the platform. As well as Mr Trump, that could include political extremists, QAnon loyalists, and Covid-19 deniers.
In response to Mr Musk’s missive, Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the internal market tweeted “In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules” suggesting regulators will take a tough stance against any relaxation of Twitter’s policies.
Mr Musk who is the world’s richest person with $250bn to his name, made his fortune through the electric car company Tesla, and space exploration firm Space X.
Until recently it appeared the deal could still fall through. After building a stake in Twitter at the start of the year, Mr Musk made his $44bn offer in April, a price tag that looked too high almost as soon as it was agreed. He said he was buying it because he wanted “civilisation to have a common digital town square” and said he planned to clean up spam accounts and preserve the platform as a venue for free speech.
But by the summer he had changed his mind about the purchase, citing concerns that the number of fake accounts on the platform was higher than Twitter claimed.
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