Elon Musk Reportedly Fires Top Execs After Closing $44 Billion Twitter Acquisition
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Elon Musk officially closed his deal to purchase Twitter after months of back and forth with the social media company’s board.
The acquisition was announced on Thursday night. CNBC’s David Faber reported that CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal have left the company.
The New York Times reported Musk fired the two men. Also let go were top legal executive Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sean Edgett.
Musk was up against a court-ordered 5 p.m. Friday deadline to close the original deal for Musk to Twitter Inc. for $44 billion. Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick said if the deal did not close by that time, she would schedule a November trial to likely force the world’s richest man to complete the buyout or accept other terms from Twitter.
“Musk assured bankers this week he would wrap the buyout on time. The banks providing $13 billion in debt financing are in the process of transferring the cash, while the New York Stock Exchange says action is pending to suspend trading of Twitter shares before Friday’s open,” reported Bloomberg on Thursday.
Musk had signaled his takeover was nearing this week as he wrote “Chief Twit” in his profile bio and posted a lengthy message to advertisers on Thursday.
The eccentric billionaire also entered Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a sink and the company subsequently announced Musk will be addressing staff on Friday.
“There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong,” Musk said in his message to assuage advertiser’s fears.
“Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter’s revenue in the second quarter,” reported Reuters Thursday, noting the social media platform has been “struggling to keep its most active users who are vital to the business.”
“That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk added, making clear some kind of content moderation will continue despite his pledges to make Twitter a “free speech” haven.
