TECH billionaire Elon Musk has officially taken over Twitter and reportedly fired several top executives after a fraught $44bn deal was finally secured.
The Tesla chief tweeted that “the bird is freed” referencing the company’s iconic logo after finally closing the deal following months of legal wrangling.
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As the company passed into the hands of the Tesla chief, Twitter’s former CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal were fired, sources claimed.
Musk has also fired the head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett, who belongs to the company’s general counsel, inside sources told The Washington Post.
Following the takeover, the billionaire changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit.”
Agrawal previously went to court to hold Musk to the terms of a deal he had tried to escape.
The takeover came hours before the court-appointed deadline for Musk to seal his on-again, off-again deal to purchase the social media network.
Musk had previously explained the reasons he wanted to take over Twitter.
“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,” he said.
“I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money.
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“I did it to try and help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”
Meanwhile, the platform’s co-founder Biz Stone thanked Agrawal, Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde for their “collective contribution to Twitter.”
“Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each.”
It was also revealed early Friday that Musk reportedly plans to assume the role of Twitter CEO while still leading Tesla and SpaceX, according to Bloomberg.
The news outlet indicated, citing a source, that “life bans” from the platform could also be reversed.
This comes as the public has been given a sneak peek into Twitter’s headquarters as Musk was swarmed by employees and colleagues.
The billionaire unexpectedly showed up at the office on Wednesday while carrying a sink, suggesting that his impending ownership is something that needed to “sink in.”
On Thursday, American author Walter Isaacson snapped a photo inside the Twitter headquarters’ coffee bar showing Musk speaking to a crowd of people.
The closure of the deal comes after a long back-and-forth between the billionaire and the platform.
Musk offered to buy the company earlier this April but he then tried to back out of the deal.
The SpaceX CEO cited issues with privacy and claimed that Twitter was lying about the number of bots and spam accounts active on the platform- allegations that have been rejected by Twitter.
In response, Twitter sued Musk on July 12 in an effort to force the merger to go through and argued that Musk violated his commitment to buy the company.
A few months later, the Delaware court system got involved and a judge marked Friday as the deadline to finalize the deal.
But it appears that Musk changed his mind and signalled the deal was back in.
Musk also previously vowed to reverse former President Donald Trump’s Twitter ban after becoming the social media platform’s new head honcho.
Musk said that barring the 45th president from the social media platform was a “mistake” that “alienated much of the country.”
The U.S. Sun reached out to Twitter for comment on the recent developments and acquisition.
‘Musk is overpaying’
Earlier today, Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told The U.S. Sun exclusively that the deal “will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street in our opinion.”
Ives said that his company, a prominent LA-based investment firm, currently values Twitter at around $25billion.
“With fair value that we would peg at roughly $25billion, Musk buying Twitter remains a major head-scratcher that ultimately he could not get out of once the Delaware Courts got involved,” Ives said.
The ‘X’ app
Musk has been vocal about his plans for Twitter, even suggesting that he might turn it into an everything app, like the China-based WeChat app.
WeChat lets users access a myriad of tools like audio and video chat, SMS text, WeChat Pay, and even a translator.
In Musk’s first town hall meeting with Twitter employees, he directly alluded to WeChat, Forbes reported.
“There’s no WeChat equivalent out of China,” he said at the meeting.
“There’s a real opportunity to create that.”
Musk also noted that creating something like WeChat could help him reach his goal of quintupling Twitter’s user base to one billion.
“Once Musk takes over Twitter on Friday, major questions will remain around changes to the platform, monetization efforts, headcount cuts on the horizon, and the long-term strategy around the “X” App,” Ives said.
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