Elon Musk Completes Twitter Takeover, Fires Executives

SpaceX, Starlink, and Tesla chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk now officially adds to the company he spearheads as his USD44 billion takeover of social media platform Twitter is now completed.

The completion of the takeover has also resulted in the firing of several Twitter top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal.

Along with Agrawal who are no longer with the company are chief financial officer Ned Segal, and Twitter’s lead legal and policy executive Vijaya Gadde.

Reuters news agency reported that Agrawal and Segal were escorted out of Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco after the completion of the deal.

Meanwhile, Musk tweeted after the deal had been closed “the bird is freed.”

Twitter has yet to confirm that the deal has been completed, however, the BBC reported that it had received word from an early investor that the deal has been done.

Twitter’s moderation policies have long irked Musk, who is a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist.”

Moreover, Twitter users globally who are on the right of the political spectrum have long criticized Twitter for censoring conservative views as they viewed former Twitter CEOs Agrawal and his predecessor, Jack Dorsey, as liberals.

Twitter has denied the claims on numerous occasions.

The deal brings to closure the saga that played out this year between Musk and Twitter after the SpaceX CEO made regular stock purchases starting in January that amounted to a 5 percent stake in the social media platform by March.

In April, Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder.

Musk and Twitter also reached an agreement over the platform at the end of April for USD44 billion.

Then in May, Musk began to change his mind over the deal, citing that the number of fake accounts that Twitter has was more than what the company told him.

In July, Musk turned away from the deal entirely, which was answered by Twitter with legal action, saying that Musk was legally committed to purchase the platform.

Twitter ultimately filed a lawsuit against Musk to coerce him to push through with the acquisition.

In October, Musk proceeded with the acquisition of Twitter and granted that all legal proceedings pertaining to his earlier refusal to purchase the platform were paused.

Musk purchased Twitter on the concept of having the platform serve as a medium for free speech and help humanity.

Moreover, he also said that he wanted for a “civilization to have a common digital town square.”

In a tweet, Musk was shown entering Twitter’s headquarters while carrying a kitchen sink.

The tweet was captioned with “let that sink in!”

Meanwhile, Musk also updated his profile with “Chief Twit” in his bio. (GFB)