Finance
According to a filing with the US government, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has completed his $44 billion (£38.1 billion) takeover of Twitter.
Mr Musk tweeted “the bird is freed” and later said “let the good times roll”.
Several top executives, including the CEO, Parag Agrawal, are said to have been fired.
According to Reuters, Mr Agrawal and two other executives were escorted out of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Thursday evening.
The agreement puts an end to months of legal wrangling, but it raises concerns about the platform’s future direction.
On Thursday, the takeover was confirmed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The New York Stock Exchange said on Friday that trading in Twitter’s shares had been suspended, giving the reason as “merger effective”.
According to US media reports, Mr Agrawal’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal, and the firm’s top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, are also leaving.
Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, appeared to confirm the executives’ departure. He thanked all three in a tweet for their “collective contribution to Twitter,” describing them as “massive talents” and “beautiful humans.”
Meanwhile, Bret Taylor, who had been Twitter’s chairman since last November, updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect his departure.
Mr Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has blasted Twitter’s management and moderation policies.
They fought over the terms of the acquisition, with Mr Musk accusing Twitter of providing false information about the company’s user numbers.
He has also stated that he will lift bans on suspended users, which could include former US President Donald Trump, who was barred following the January 2021 Capitol riot.
Twitter warned at the time that Mr Trump could incite further violence. Mr. Musk, on the other hand, has called the ban “foolish.”
Mr Musk stated earlier this week that he does not want the platform to become an echo chamber for hate and division. “Obviously, Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!” he tweeted.
The takeover has sparked debate among Twitter users about how the platform will look under Mr Musk’s ownership.
It is unclear whether the purge of senior management is a precursor to company-wide job cuts. Earlier reports claimed that 75% of the social media company’s employees would be laid off, but those claims were “inaccurate,” according to Ross Gerber, a shareholder in both Twitter and Mr Musk’s other company Tesla.
“Twitter has a lot of talented people, particularly on the engineering side, and they want to retain as much of that talent as possible,” Mr Gerber told the BBC.
However, he stated that job losses could extend far beyond upper management. Mr Musk suggested that he might consider laying off product managers and terminating projects “that aren’t going anywhere.”
Source:BBC
