Elon Musk, a billionaire, has just bought Twitter for $44 billion, ending a turbulent transition period for the powerful social media firm.
The Washington Post on Thursday evening stated that Musk had initiated his takeover, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the situation. The Post stated that he let go of several other high-ranking employees, including Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, who oversaw the company’s legal policy, trust, and safety. It has been claimed by CNBC and Insider that Musk is now the CEO of Twitter.
Requests for comment from Twitter were not immediately answered by representatives from the company or by Agrawal, Segal, or Gadde.
Musk’s tweet late Thursday seemed to announce his new ownership situation, with the short phrase “the bird is liberated.”
By finalizing the agreement, Musk avoided a potentially embarrassing trial with Twitter in public. Initially, on October 17, Facebook and Musk were set to face off in a five-day trial. The trial has been postponed until Friday so that Twitter and Musk can reach an agreement, as ordered by the judge in Delaware.
In July, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, for withdrawing his offer to acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share. Musk claimed Twitter lied about the prevalence of bot and spam accounts on its platform. Twitter, on the other side, said that Musk was attempting to cancel the transaction due of his declining fortune.
Taking Twitter private has been a tumultuous plan for Musk since since he announced his intention to buy the company. On October 3, Musk’s attorneys announced on Twitter that their client intended to buy the firm at the initial offer price in order to settle the lawsuit.
Musk, a vocal critic and user of the service, wanted to purchase Twitter because he believes it is “failing to adhere to free speech ideals.” The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects citizens against governmental censorship but does not apply to private organizations like Twitter that set their own standards for what is and is not acceptable speech.
The billionaire has proposed a number of improvements to Twitter, such as making the service’s algorithms open source and cracking down on spam and bogus accounts. However, he has also stated that he intends to end Twitter’s indefinite suspension of former US President Donald Trump. Fearing that the politician’s comments will provoke additional violence in the wake of the Capitol Hill protests on January 6, Twitter and other companies banned him from their services. Concerns have been voiced by advocacy groups and Twitter employees that under Musk’s leadership, the site could become more permissive of hate speech and harassment.
Musk expressed his concerns about the future of social media in a tweet on Thursday, writing, “I don’t want Twitter to become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!”
Bloomberg quotes people familiar with the situation as saying that Musk visited Twitter’s headquarters this week and assured employees that he had no plans to lay off 75% of the workforce upon taking over the firm. Musk uploaded a video of his trip at Twitter’s headquarters on Wednesday.
