Elon Musk finally accomplished his $44 billion Twitter takeover deal, firing the corporate’s CEO and financial chief and ending a lengthy tug-of-war with its board of directors just before a key deadline, in accordance with a source near the situation.
Musk took the struggling social network private late Thursday, ousting chief executive Parag Agrawal and chief financial officer Ned Segal, in accordance with the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bloomberg News reported early Friday that Musk plans to take over as Twitter’s CEO — no less than on an interim basis.
Elon Musk finally accomplished his $44B deal to purchase Twitter.Elon Musk/Twitter
It wasn’t immediately clear who would replace Segal as CFO.
Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out, sources said. Musk had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of faux accounts on the social media platform.
Musk also fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top legal and policy executive, and general counsel Sean Edgett, in accordance with the Wall Street Journal.
Gadde had been criticized by Musk for blocking links to the Recent York Post’s coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop. She also made the choice to permanently ban then-President Donald Trump from the location after the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol, in accordance with Axios.
Soon after news of Musk’s Twitter acquisition broke, Bloomberg News also reported that he’s expected to reverse lifetime bans on past users of the social media platform.
Musk has previously voiced his opposition to Twitter’s policy of shutting out accounts — especially Trump’s.
Elon Musk finally accomplished his $44 billion Twitter takeover deal, firing the corporate’s CEO and CFO, Ned Segal (pictured).
Twitter’s Acting General Counsel Sean Edgett was amongst those that Musk fired.
Chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde was also fired.
“Everlasting bans ought to be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts which can be bots, or scam, spam accounts … I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said in May.
Reps for Musk and Twitter officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Musk, who also owns SpaceX, took to Twitter shortly after the deal broke to post images of his Falcon rocket launch.
The mogul plans to carry a companywide town hall at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters Friday.
The agreement between Musk’s legal team and Twitter’s board was reached lower than a day before the 5 p.m. Friday deadline imposed by Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick. With out a deal, Musk and Twitter would have clashed on opposite sides of a November trial.
Under the deal’s terms, Musk will buy Twitter on the originally agreed price of $54.20 per share. Musk has vowed to take the corporate private and reshape the platform with an emphasis on free speech.
Twitter stock closed Thursday at $53.70 and the corporate’s shares will likely be suspended from trading on Friday, the Recent York Stock Exchange’s website showed.
Agrawal, who replaced Twitter founder Jack Dorsey as CEO last November, is anticipated to walk away with a $42 million payout. Segal will reportedly pocket $25.5 million, while Dorsey stands to rake in nearly $1 billion.
Musk signaled throughout the week that he intended to finalize the takeover deal. The eccentric billionaire modified his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” and posted a video of himself barging into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a sink.
Musk’s involvement has renewed hand-wringing amongst Twitter employees who fear he’ll enact sweeping layoffs and other cost-cutting measures while reshaping the corporate’s business.
The Tesla boss took steps to reassure skeptics. During his office visit, Musk said he had no intention of slashing 75% of Twitter’s workforce upon taking control, because the Washington Post had reported.
Musk also posted a lengthy message to Twitter’s advertisers, writing that he had no intention of turning the social media platform right into a “free-for-all hellscape.” Critics had suggested that Musk’s aggressive stance on free speech would enable extremist voices to thrive on the platform.
“The explanation I acquired Twitter is because it is crucial to the long run of civilization to have a typical digital town square, where a big selection of beliefs may be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk said.
Musk’s co-investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, are contributing $7.1 billion toward the deal. Banks including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are covering $13 billion in debt financing.
Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.Twitter / @elonmusk
During Tesla’s earnings call earlier this month, Musk admitted that he was “obviously overpaying” to purchase the firm, but added he felt the “long-term potential for Twitter is an order of magnitude greater than its current value.”
While Musk’s long-term plans for Twitter are still murky, the chief has called the corporate an “accelerant” for his goal of making an “the whole lot app” called X. The app is widely expected to mirror the Tencent-owned social media app WeChat, which offers a wide selection of services starting from payments to food delivery and ride-sharing.
Earlier this month, Musk said the acquisition of Twitter “probably accelerates X by 3 to five years, but I might be flawed.”
The closed deal followed a months-long saga that began in April when Musk disclosed that he had taken a large stake in Twitter. By April, Twitter’s board had accepted Musk’s offer to purchase the corporate for $54.20 per share, or $44 billion.
Musk later attempted to back out of the agreement, citing concerns in regards to the variety of spam bots inside Twitter’s user base and accusing the corporate of withholding key information in regards to the issue.
In July, Twitter’s board sued Musk in Delaware Chancery Court in an effort to implement the unique $44 billion deal by court order. Because the trial approached, Musk reversed course again and signaled that he would honor the unique agreement.
With Post wires
