While not officially announced by either party at the time of writing, it is reported by numerous sources that the deal between billionaire Elon Musk and Twitter has finally closed, resulting in the former to rightfully own the company as well as having a major stake in its shares. Prior to this, the former was given a deadline of 28 October to complete his US$ 44 billion acquisition of the former, or face a court battle with the company. “The bird is freed,” the Space X and Tesla CEO said in his most latest tweet.
Musk somewhat teased the deal’s closure yesterday on social media, sharing a video of him visiting Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco while carrying a kitchen sink. “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” he tweeted along with the clip – just in case his hint wasn’t too on-the-nose already for some, presumably. The billionaire stated that he plans to “meet a lot of cool people” during his visit, but for what purpose is not made clear.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
Visually delivering a dad joke on location isn’t the only thing Musk has done after acquiring the social media giant. According to CNBC, The Washington Post and Insider, he also has formally dismissed several of Twitter’s high-ranking executives including its top policy official Vijaya Gadde, general counsel Sean Edgett, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief customer officer Sarah Personette, and even CEO Parag Agrawal. The latter, as you may recall, succeeded Jack Dorsey after his resignation from the company in late 2021.
Rather than a boot to the back, the executives reportedly received compensation upon their exit. According to Insider, Agrawal received US$ 38.7 million, Segal got US$ 25.4 million, Gadde got US$ 12.5 million, and Personette got US$ 11.2 million. Edgett’s payout wasn’t disclosed but Bloomberg reports that he was apparently escorted out of the HQ after the layoff announcement. Speaking of which, the same report also alleged that Musk told Twitter employees that he is indeed planning to downsize the workforce during his takeover, but notes that the cuts won’t be as high as 75%.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Prior to this, the billionaire said he intends to bring big changes to the social media company. These include relaxing Twitter’s moderation rules, eliminating spam bots, and charging a “slight cost” to governments and corporations for using the platform. In a recent tweet, Musk claims that the purpose of the acquisition is “not a way to make money,” while at the same time assuring advertisers that he doesn’t want Twitter to be a “free-for-all hellscape” and promises to shape it into the “most respected advertising platform in the world.”
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
Musk also previously expressed his intentions of using the acquisition to kickstart development of an all-new super app tentatively known as “X”, which he envisioned to resemble WeChat – a major platform in China that gradually grew from a private messenger to an app that now provides multiple services such as payments and gaming. “You basically live on WeChat in China,” the billionaire told Twitter employees back in June. “If we can recreate that with Twitter, we’ll be a great success.”
(Sources: CNBC / Insider / The Washington Post / Bloomberg)
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