After months of back and forth, Elon Musk has finally completed the takeover of social media giant Twitter.
Musk initiated a cleanup of Twitter’s top brass after completing the takeover, with the CEO, CFO, and Legal Head all sacked on his first day at the helm.
A Back And Forth Process
The takeover was long-drawn, with Musk meeting Twitter chairman Brett Taylor. The meeting with Taylor went well, with the announcement that Musk was joining the Twitter board coming a few days later. At the time, he seemed happy with the board position. However, meetings with CEO Parag Agarwal did not go well, following which the billionaire stated that he would purchase the company in its entirety.
Musk offered the Twitter board $44 billion, a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Initially, the board decided to leave it, creating a “poison pill” provision, effectively preventing Musk’s forcible takeover of the company. However, after a couple of weeks, the board changed its mind and decided to take the deal.
Free Speech Above All
Elon Musk has often criticized Twitter, stating that the platform had lost its way by restricting free speech. He added that as the world’s “town hall,” the platform needed to give free speech paramount importance. He also began asking questions about the number of actual accounts on the platform. For a number of years, the billionaire had complained about the excessive bots on the platform.
With his offer to buy Twitter now accepted, Musk began asking the company to provide data on how many real users were on the platform. The new owner was not satisfied when executives stated that, based on estimates, 5% of the accounts on the platform were bot accounts.
Deal Collapsing? Not Quite
By July, Musk, after repeated clashes with CEO Parag Agarwal, announced that he was pulling out of the deal. However, Twitter management argued that the agreement to purchase the company was legally binding and that pulling out of the deal was not an option for Mr. Musk. Documents showed that Twitter stated the company had given him ample information about the number of real users on the platform. Musk argued that the company could have more bots than it claimed, even accusing it of fraud.
With all parties involved preparing for a long-drawn court case, Elon Musk suddenly announced that the deal was back in the works. Twitter, on their part, asked for the court case to be postponed, giving Musk until 17:00 BST to complete the deal. With the deal now complete, Musk officially starts his tenure at the company and has already taken some big calls, clearing out the company’s upper management.
Management Clearout
As soon as the takeover was completed, Musk started imposing his authority on the company. According to several reports, CEO Parag Agarwal, CFO Ned Segal, and Head of Legal and Policy, Vijaya Gadde, were all sacked, with Musk stating that they had misled him on the number of bot accounts present on the platform. Reports stated that Agarwal and Segal were escorted out of the premises as soon as the deal was concluded.
With the deal completed, Musk stated that he intends to change the platform into a bastion of free speech, remove political echo chambers, and remove spam accounts.
Binance Backs Acquisition
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had announced that the exchange is backing the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk. The company stated that it would commit $500 million towards the move to acquire the social media giant. Binance had stated on previous occasions that it would help finance the acquisition and looks to stay true to its word.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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