Musk finally takes over Twitter and sacks many top executives

Friday, October 28th 2022 - 09:41 UTC

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Musk reportedly intends to lay off 75 % of Twitter's 7,500 staffers.

South African entrepreneur Elon Musk Thursday agreed to buy Twitter for US$ 44 billion and sacked many top executives as his first move proving he was in charge of the social media platform.

CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Legal Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde, and Chief Counselor Sean Edgett were among those fired over their product decisions and content moderation strategies.

Thursday's deal ended months of negotiations after Musk pursued a hostile takeover at an inflated price, only to go back and forth on his steps, which triggered a legal battle.

Musk had turned up Wednesday at the company's headquarters unexpectedly, carrying a sink with his hands suggesting his becoming the new owner had to “sink in,” according to a picture he posted on Twitter. A general meeting is expected to convene Friday.

The head of Tesla and SpaceEx has suggested he wants to relax rules for policing allegedly harmful content, such as misinformation and hate speech while offering to return his account to former US President Donald Trump.

Musk's offer to honor his initial offer came two weeks before the case was scheduled to go to trial in Delaware.

The South African tycoon, who had already bought around 5 % of Twitter stock before making his bid, has been questioning the platform's role regarding free speech by not living up to its potential.

Musk sold some US$ 8.5 billion worth of Tesla shares to fund the Twitter deal and lured various investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison to join his venture. But he later said he would drop his offer after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts.

In July, Twitter sued Musk to get the deal completed and the dispute was going to go to trial later this month. Then a Delaware judge gave both sides until Oct. 28 to reach an agreement.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that Musk intended to lay off 75 % of Twitter's 7,500 staffers.