Billionaire Elon Musk is now the new owner of one of the biggest micro blogging social media platform Twitter. Elon Musk has fired the company's CEO Parag Agrawal and Top Legal Executive Vijaya Gadde. Elon Musk who is also CEO of the Tesla, closed the $44-billion deal to buy Twitter on October 27, 2022. Elon Musk now hold 100 per cent shares of company and Twitter will now be operated as a private company. Twitter shares stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
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| image: newsonair |
The deal has been embroiled in controversies since earlier this year. On Friday world's richest person Elon Musk confirmed the takeover of Twitter. The developments came after six months of public and legal wrangling. The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk had been started in April 2022, and concluded on October 27, 2022. Business magnate Elon Musk started to buy shares of Twitter in January 2022. He became the company's largest shareholder in April, 2022 with a 9.1 percent ownership stake. Twitter then invited Elon Musk to join its board of directors. On April 14, 2022, he made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company for $43 billion. On April 25, 2022, Twitter's board of directors unanimously accepted Musk's buyout offer of $44 billion, with the company set to be taken private.
Mr. Musk announced his intention to terminate the agreement in July, 2022 asserting that Twitter had breached their agreement by refusing to crack down on spambot accounts. The company filed a lawsuit against Musk in the Court. Thereafter, with a trial scheduled for the week of October 17. Weeks before the trial was set to begin, Musk reversed course, announcing that he would move forward with the acquisition. The deal was closed on October 27, 2022. Elon Musk immediately becameTwitter's new owner and fired several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal.
Reason to Acquire Twitter By Musk
Mr. Musk stated that he planned to introduce new features to the platform, make its algorithms open-sourced, combat spambot accounts, and promote free speech. Elon Musk posted an tweet after taking control of Twitter and firing its top executives. "The bird is freed." Musk tweeted after completing the $44 billion deal. Twitter has a blue bird as its logo. Mr. Musk said he didn't buy the firm "to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love".
Elon Musk said, “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 Age 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.”
About Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; president of Musk Foundation; and owner of Twitter. His estimated net worth of around $210 billion as of October 2022. Musk is the wealthiest person in the world according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes's real-time billionaires list.
Donald Trump's Reaction
Former President of US, Donald Trump, who has been suspended on Twitter since January last year said on his own social networking app Truth Social platform, "I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country." Elon Musk has indicated he would lift Trump's Twitter ban. Trump's Twitter account has been banned since January last year, when Trump's supporters attempted insurrection at the US Capitol during US presidential election.
European Union (EU) Reaction
Responding to the Musk's tweet, “The bird is freed”, Thierry Breton, the Commissioner for the Internet market in European Union (EU) said, “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.” Breton tweeted with the hashtag #DSA referring to the Digital Services Act designed by the European Union to tighten the regulation of social media. European Union's recently approved Digital Services Act (DSA). Under DSA large tech companies will be required to have robust content moderation systems to ensure they can quickly take down illegal material such as hate speech, incitement to terrorism and child sexual abuse. The EU's rules are expected to come into force by 2024. Companies can be fined up to 6% of global annual revenues for violations.
Firing of Top Executives
Musk's takeover fired top executives. The Twitter's executives who were fired includes CEO Parag Agrawal, Top Legal Executive Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
CEO Parag Agrawal had clashed with Musk publicly and privately in recent months about the Twitter's takeover.
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| From left: Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, and Sean Edgett |
Top Legal Executive Vijaya Gadde was at the forefront for the permanently suspension of Twitter account of Former President of US Donald Trump in January last year, when Trump's supporters attempted insurrection at the US Capitol during US presidential election.
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