Tesla CEO Elon Musk has officially taken over Twitter as he completed the deal late Thursday. Elon Musk also sacked CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and head of legal policy, trust, and safety, Vijaya Gadde.
The reports came a few hours before the court-appointed deadline of Friday. Back in April this year, Twitter had accepted Musk"s proposal to buy the social media. However, Musk terminated the deal alleging that the company failed to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Agrawal then took Musk to the court to come to the terms of the takeover deal he tried escaping, alleging that Musk “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
The Delaware judge then set a deadline for Musk to acquire Twitter by Friday. Twitter shares were suspended on the NYSE as the deal closed and Twitter became a private company.
Elon Musk also revealed why he wanted to acquire Twitter on Thursday.
"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.
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 note was intended to advertisers to emphasize on ad revenue. This is in contrast to Musk"s previous stance on Twitter"s dependence on advertising, suggesting that he won"t allow big corporations to dictate policy on how the social media operates.
On Thursday, however, Musk assured advertisers that he wants Twitter to be "the most respected advertising platform in the world."
Twitter has not been historically good at targeted ads, unlike Meta. Musk"s message suggests that he wants to fix it, while also ensuring "free speech" on the platform.
Source: CNBC, Washington Post (paywall)