According to several American media, the boss of Tesla and Space X began to clean up at the head of the social network, dismissing three leaders on Thursday evening.
“The bird is released“, tweeted Elon Musk. The richest man in the world, boss of Tesla and Space X, has just officially acquired the social network Twitter on Thursday, October 26 for the sum of 44 billion dollars, announced several American media, including Reuters and the New York Times.
The ink barely dried on the contract, the first decision of the bubbling entrepreneur was to dismiss the management of the network at the blue bird, which he accuses of having misled him on the number of fake accounts of the platform. According to people familiar with the matter, chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and director of legal affairs and policy Vijaya Gadde were let go. Agrawal and Segal were apparently at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco when the deal was struck and were escorted out.
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In recent days, signals that the operation was imminent had multiplied. The multi-billionaire went to Twitter headquarters on Wednesday, renaming himself “Chief Twiton his profile – “tweet“meaning”dumbass” in English. Thursday, the employees of the group had received an invitation to a general meeting for the same evening, finally canceled “until further notice”. According to the wall street journal, the banks participating in the financing of the operation had also started to send the money the same day. In addition, the New York Stock Exchange, where Twitter is listed, had indicated in a notice that the action of the platform would be suspended Friday before the opening of the session.
Pressed by time and justice
Elon Musk was pressed for time: a judge responsible for settling a dispute between the two parties had given them until Friday to agree, failing which a trial would take place in November. The operation had been dragging on since the announcement at the end of April of a $44 billion acquisition offer, reluctantly accepted by Twitter. The entrepreneur had sought to get out of it unilaterally in early July, accusing the company of having lied to him, but the company’s board of directors took legal action. A few days before the opening of a lawsuit that Twitter seemed on track to win, Elon Musk finally offered to close the transaction at the price initially agreed.
The boss of Tesla had already indicated in the previous days to investors that he intended, in the long term, to lay off almost 75% of the 7,500 employees of Twitter, according to information published last week by the washington post. “The easiest part for Musk was buying Twitter”, estimated Dan Ives, analyst for Wedbush, on Thursday in a note. For the richest man in the world, the challenge now will be “fix this troubled asset”. The operation will remain, according to this analyst, as “one of the most overpaid technology acquisitions” Of the history.
A “hellish” platform
Presenting himself as a staunch defender of freedom of expression, Elon Musk has already indicated that he intends to relax the moderation of content, rekindling concerns about a possible resurgence of abuse and misinformation on the platform. He, for example, opened the door to a return of Donald Trump, ousted from Twitter shortly after the assault on the Capitol in January 2021.
The entrepreneur worked on Thursday to reassure advertisers by saying that he wanted to allow all opinions to be expressed on the social network, but did not want to make it a platform “hellish” where everything would be allowed. He is “important for the future of civilization to have an online public square where a wide variety of opinions can debate in a healthy way, without resorting to violence”he wrote in a message specifically addressed to companies that buy advertising on the social network. “That said, Twitter obviously cannot be a hellish place open to everyone, where anything can be said without consequence”he added.
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