Elon Musk‘s $44 billion takeover of Twitter is now complete. The billionaire ousted several top executives and installed himself as CEO of the short messaging service, say several reports.
Musk tweeted “the bird is freed,” after reportedly firing several top executives, including the chief executive, Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, chief financial officer, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety. Musk earlier changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit.”
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
The deal puts to a close a lengthy acquisition process that had Musk originally offering to buy Twitter for $44 billion in April – which was accepted – before Musk put the buyout “temporarily on hold” in May due to a dispute over the number of fake accounts that were on the service.
Musk attempted to call off the purchase in July, only to see Twitter file a lawsuit to force the billionaire to continue with the sale. In October, Musk again changed his mind, proposing a purchase at the originally offered price.
Current Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 per share. Musk will then take Twitter private.
While Musk was rumored to be planning to cut Twitter staff numbers by as much as 75% in an effort to pay down the company’s debt burden, Musk later dismissed those reports, saying he would not cut that many employees.
Now we will have to wait and see to find out all of Musk’s plans for the 230 million-user-strong social media platform. In a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday, Musk said “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
