After months of back and forth between Elon Musk and Twitter, Musk finalises his USD 44 billion deal to buy the social media platform. He also fired three Twitter executives right away, including CEO Parag Agrawal.
Previously, Musk said that he was putting the deal on hold as he wanted to check if the total number of spam and fake accounts in fact make up less than 5% of users. This was because Twitter revealed that the platform had been overestimating its daily users for the past three years due to counting multiple accounts as active, even though they were being used by the same person.
However, an analyst noted that Musk is potentially trying to wrestle a lower price with Twitter. A class action lawsuit had also been filed against Musk as an investor claimed Musk has manipulated the stock prices of Twitter downwards.
Earlier this month, Musk reversed course and said he will proceed with the Twitter deal on the original terms. He also planned to get rid of nearly 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 workers—a lot more than what Twitter needed to retrench.
“Although, obviously, myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now, the long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,” Musk said.
And now that he completed and finalised his Twitter deal, the billionaire is now in charge of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms. He also chose to let three top Twitter executives go, according to two people familiar with the decision.
One of the top executives includes Parag Agrawal, the Twitter CEO who took over the platform after founder Jack Dorsey resigned. He was also the guy to who Musk responded with a singular poop emoji on Twitter.
The removal of Agrawal and the other executives could signify the “hostile takeover” that was expected of Musk. He made it clear that he would overhaul Twitter’s content moderation policies and bolster what he calls “free speech”—potentially undoing years of efforts from the company to address misinformation and harassment. This also means that Musk will not have use for many of Twitter’s existing staff.
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