Musk completes purchase of Twitter, starts firing executives

Facing a Friday deadline to complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter or face a courtroom trial, Elon Musk finalized the deal and is now running the show at the social media company. CNBC reports that Musk, the richest man in the world with a net worth of close to $220 billion, has already fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of legal policy Vijaya Gadde.

In April, Musk offered Twitter stockholders $54.20 a share for their stock, a 38% premium to the price of Twitter the day before Musk revealed his stake in the company. But almost immediately the Tesla CEO tried to back out of the deal claiming that a large percentage of Twitter's subscribers were bots. Twitter sued Musk claiming that the multi-billionaire backed away from the deal "because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests." Musk filed a counterclaim and it appeared that a trial was inevitable.

After dropping hints about his continued interest in buying Twitter over the summer, Musk announced earlier this month that he would complete the transaction at the original terms. With advertisers concerned about what direction Musk might take Twitter, he posted a tweet titled "Dear Twitter Advertisers" that 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 range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence."

Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

He also wrote that "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." He did point out that he did not buy Twitter "to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love." Twitter's new owner says that he wants the platform to be "warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences."

Automobile companies are reportedly nervous about advertising on Twitter because of a possible conflict of interest due to Musk's executive title at Tesla. There had been speculation that Musk would remove advertising from Twitter but that doesn't seem to be the case after he said, "advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you. Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise."

What Musk doesn't want Twitter to become is "a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!" Elon plans to appoint himself as Twitter CEO and will allow anyone banned from the platform, such as former President Donald Trump, to return. Trump previously said that he would not return to Twitter if Musk bought the company. In addition, the former president has his own Truth Social platform although the beleaguered social media site is having problems becoming part of a publicly traded company as originally planned.

Trump was banned from Twitter by then CEO Jack Dorsey on January 8th, 2021. That was two days after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. At the time, Dorsey was concerned about the prospects for continued violence if Trump were allowed to continue using Twitter as his main form of communications.

After closing on the transaction, Musk changed his title on his Twitter account to "Chief Twit." He previously said that he sees Twitter transforming into a "super app" that could offer ride-hailing, shopping, and money transfers. That sounds like he plans to model Twitter after China's WeChat which offers a number of services to consumers in addition to being a social-media platform.