Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter. Four Top Executives, Including CEO Parag Agrawal, Fired
With Musk's arrival, CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal are said to have left the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
New Delhi: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken charge of the microblogging site Twitter and fired the social media company’s four top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and legal executive Vijaya Gadde.
The New York Times reported that Musk, the world's richest man, closed the deal to buy Twitter on Thursday.
Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the report said that Musk “has started cleaning house at Twitter with the firings of at least four top executives”.
The Twitter executives who were fired include Agrawal, Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
“At least one of the executives who was fired was escorted out of Twitter’s office,” the report said.
The deal’s closing removes a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Twitter’s business, employees and shareholders for much of the year, the CNN said.
This comes after Elon Musk posted a video of him walking into the Twitter headquarters carrying a sink on the microblogging site ahead of closing the $44 billion acquisition deal on Wednesday. He also changed his bio to "Chief Twit". He shared the video of his visit with the caption, "Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!", he said that he was trying to sink in.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Earlier, News agency Reuters had cited sources as saying that Elon Musk notified co-investors who committed to help fund his $44-billion Twitter acquisition as he planned to close the buyout of the social media firm by Friday (October 28).
According to the report citing sources, equity investors, including Sequoia Capital, Binance, Qatar Investment Authority, and others received the requisite paperwork for the financing commitment from Musk's lawyers. The move by Musk was seen as a clear sign that he plans to comply with a Delaware court judge's deadline to complete the transaction by Friday.
The banks that committed to funding Musk's buyout of Twitter finished putting together the final debt financing agreement and are in the process of signing the necessary documents, Bloomberg News had reported.
Musk's Messy Twitter Takeover
In April, Twitter accepted the billionaire Tesla CEO's proposal to buy the social media service and take it private. However, in May, Musk pulled out of the deal accusing Twitter of failing to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts.
When Musk said he was terminating the deal, Twitter sued the billionaire saying that he “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
Twitter and Musk traded allegations through their attorneys in the ensuing months as the two parties were headed to Delaware’s Court of Chancery to determine the fate of the company and whether it would end up with Musk.
In October, Musk had a change of heart as he once again showed interest in pursuing his acquisition at the original price of $54.20 a share if the social messaging service dropped its litigation. According to CNN, Twitter’s lawyers responded to it by saying that the Tesla CEO’s “proposal is an invitation to further mischief and delay.”
Finally, a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled that Musk had until October 28 to complete the Twitter deal or head to trial.
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