Elon Musk Tweets 'The Bird Is Freed', Top Execs Exit After Tesla CEO's Twitter Takeover
“The bird is free,” Musk tweeted.
New Delhi: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who took control of Twitter said in a Tweet “that the bird is free.”
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
This tweet came after Musk took charge of the microblogging website. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal have left the company's San Francisco headquarters and will not be returning as Musk began the purge of executives after closing the expected deal, news agency ANI reported citing sources.
Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety was also fired, ANI reported citing media reports. Agrawal, who is an IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, had joined Twitter over a decade ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees at the company. “Agrawal, who was appointed Twitter’s chief executive last year, had clashed” with Musk “publicly and privately in recent months about the takeover,” the NYT report said.
Musk also “singled out” Gadde, 48, “criticising her for her role in content moderation decisions at the company”, it added. As the Twitter account of former US President Donald Trump was permanently suspended in January last year, Hyderabad-born Gadde was at the forefront of this dramatic decision undertaken within days of the attempted insurrection by pro-Trump supporters at the US Capitol.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone thanked Agrawal, Segal and Gadde for their "massive contribution" to the business. "Thank you to @paraga, @vijaya , and @nedsegal for the collective contribution to Twitter. Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each!" Stone tweeted.
Musk arrived at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday and had been meeting with engineers and advertising executives. Musk also updated his Twitter description to “Chief Twit.” The 51-year-old has promised to transform Twitter by loosening the service’s content moderation rules, making its algorithm more transparent and nurturing subscription businesses, as well as laying off employees.
In April, Twitter accepted Musk’s proposal to buy the social media service and take it private. However, Musk soon began sowing doubt about his intentions to follow through with the agreement, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.
When Musk said he was terminating the deal, Twitter sued the billionaire, alleging he “refuses to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.” Earlier in October, Musk said he wanted to pursue his acquisition of Twitter at the original price of USD 54.20 a share if the social messaging service dropped its litigation.
Twitter’s lawyers said that the Tesla CEO’s “proposal is an invitation to further mischief and delay.” A Delaware Chancery Court judge eventually ruled that Musk had until October 28 to cement the Twitter deal or head to trial.
On Thursday, Musk wrote a message to reassure advertisers that social messaging services wouldn’t devolve into “a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” “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,” Musk said in the message.
“There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far-right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.” The social media platform's shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange's website.
Twitter accepted Musk's proposal to buy and take the social media service private in April. However, Musk soon began sowing doubt about his intentions to follow through with the agreement, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.
Earlier when, Musk said he was terminating the deal, he was sued by Twitter. The microblogging site allged that Musk "refused to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests," however, he later decided to pursue his acquisition of Twitter at the original price of USD 54.20 a share, reported CNBC.
Following Musk's decision, a Delaware Chancery Court judge eventually ruled that Musk had until October 28 to cement the Twitter deal or head to trial. Musk arrived at the Twitter headquarters earlier this week carrying a sink, and documented the event on Twitter, saying "Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!" and also updated his Twitter description to "Chief Twit."
(With agencies' Inputs)
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