Elon Musk Takes Twitter Ownership, Said to Have Fired Top Executives

Elon Musk turned Twitter Inc’s proprietor on Thursday, firing high executives and offering little readability over how he’ll obtain the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform.

The CEO of electrical automobile maker Tesla has mentioned he needs to “defeat” spam bots on Twitter, make the algorithms that decide how content material is introduced to its customers publicly out there, and forestall the platform from turning into an echo chamber for hate and division, at the same time as he limits censorship.

Yet Musk has not provided particulars on how he’ll obtain all this and who will run the corporate. He has mentioned he plans to chop jobs, leaving Twitter’s roughly 7,500 workers fretting about their future. He additionally mentioned on Thursday he didn’t purchase Twitter to make more cash however “to try to help humanity, whom I love.”

Musk terminated Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and authorized affairs and coverage chief Vijaya Gadde, in accordance with folks accustomed to the matter. He had accused them of deceptive him and Twitter buyers over the variety of faux accounts on the social media platform.

Agrawal and Segal had been in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and had been escorted out, the sources added.

Twitter, Musk and the executives didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

‘Chief Twit’

Before closing the $44-billion (roughly Rs. 3,37,465 crore) acquisition, and by no means afraid to bask in theatrics, Musk walked into Twitter’s headquarters on Wednesday with an enormous grin and carrying a porcelain sink, subsequently tweeting “let that sink in.” He modified his description in his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit.”

He additionally tried to calm fears amongst workers that main layoffs are coming and guaranteed advertisers that his previous criticism of Twitter’s content material moderation guidelines wouldn’t hurt its enchantment.

“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk mentioned in an open letter to advertisers on Thursday.

Musk has indicated he sees Twitter as a basis for making a “super app” that gives every part from cash transfers to procuring and ride-hailing.

“The long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,” Musk mentioned on Tesla’s name with analysts on October 19.

But Twitter is struggling to have interaction its most energetic customers who’re very important to the enterprise. These “heavy tweeters” account for lower than 10 p.c of month-to-month general customers however generate 90 p.c of all tweets and half of world income.

Musk additionally mentioned in May he would reverse the ban on Donald Trump, who was eliminated after the assault on the US Capitol, though the previous US president has mentioned he will not return to the platform. He has as a substitute launched his personal social media app, Truth Social.

A consultant for Trump didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.

A saga

The deal is the fruits of a exceptional saga, stuffed with twists and turns, that sowed doubt over whether or not Musk would full the deal. It started on April 4, when Musk disclosed a 9.2 p.c stake within the firm, making him its largest shareholder.

The world’s richest individual then agreed to affix Twitter’s board, solely to balk on the final minute and provide to purchase the corporate as a substitute for $54.20 per share (roughly Rs. 4,320), a proposal that Twitter was uncertain whether or not to interpret as one other of Musk’s hashish jokes.

Musk’s provide was actual, and over the course of only one weekend later in April, the 2 sides reached a deal on the worth he steered. This occurred with out Musk finishing up any due diligence on the corporate’s confidential info, as is customary in an acquisition.

In the weeks that adopted, Musk had second ideas. He complained publicly that he believed Twitter’s spam accounts had been considerably greater than Twitter’s estimate, revealed in regulatory filings, of lower than 5 p.c of its monetizable each day energetic customers. His legal professionals then accused Twitter of not complying along with his requests for info on the topic.

The acrimony resulted in Musk giving discover to Twitter on July 8 that he was terminating their deal on the grounds that Twitter misled him in regards to the bots and didn’t cooperate with him. Four days later, Twitter sued Musk in Delaware, the place the corporate is included, to drive him to finish the deal.

By then, shares of social media firms and the broader inventory market had plunged on issues that the Federal Reserve’s rate of interest hikes, because it seeks to combat inflation, will push the US economic system into recession. Twitter accused Musk of purchaser’s regret, arguing he needed to get out of the deal as a result of he thought he overpaid.

Most authorized analysts mentioned Twitter had the strongest arguments and would probably prevail in courtroom. Their view didn’t change even after Twitter’s former safety chief Peiter Zatko stepped ahead as a whistleblower in August to allege that the corporate didn’t disclose weaknesses in its safety and information privateness.

On October 4, simply as Musk was set to be deposed by Twitter’s legal professionals forward of the beginning of their trial later within the month, he carried out one other u-turn and provided to finish the deal as promised. He managed to do this, simply at some point forward of an October 28 deadline given by the Delaware decide to keep away from going to trial.

Twitter shares ended commerce on Thursday in New York up 0.3 p.c at $53.86 (roughly Rs. 4,430), a small low cost to the $54.20 per share deal worth. The inventory will probably be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

© Thomson Reuters 2022