Twitter is now owned by Elon Musk. Shortly before the deadline set by a court expires, the Tesla boss takes over the platform. With the first layoffs, he doesn't hesitate.
According to media reports, the era of Elon Musk on Twitter began with layoffs in the executive floor. On Thursday (local time), the previous company boss Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal were fired, among others, the broadcaster CNBC and the "Wall Street Journal" reported. The top manager responsible for the fight against hate speech and false information, Vijaya Gadde, was among the dismissed, it said. Musk had repeatedly criticized Agrawal and the Twitter leadership in recent months. The New York Times wrote that at least one of the managers had been taken out of the company's headquarters. An official announcement about the completion of the takeover is still pending.
A deadline set by a judge for an agreement between Musk and Twitter for a takeover would have expired on Friday. Musk announced in April that he wanted to buy Twitter for $44 billion. In July, however, the 51-year-old backed down. The reason given by the entrepreneur was that Twitter had given false information about the number of spam and fake accounts on the network. Observers suspected that Musk thought the originally agreed price was too high and had difficulties with financing after Tesla shares depreciated.
The company rejected the allegations of the alleged fake profiles and went to court to force the multi-billionaire to complete the takeover. At the beginning of October, Musk then announced that he wanted to buy Twitter as originally planned - probably also because he was only given low chances in the process. The judge responsible then postponed the process planned for mid-October and asked the parties to the dispute to come to an agreement by Friday.
Musk then caused a stir on Wednesday with a visit to Twitter's headquarters - he was carrying a sink. On Thursday, he addressed advertisers: With the purchase of the platform, he wanted to enable "healthy" debates on the Internet, he tweeted. "It is important for the future of civilization to have a common digital hub where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy way without resorting to violence."
At the same time, Twitter must not become an "anarchic hell where anything can be said without consequences," Musk said. The platform must not only comply with applicable law, but also be "warm and welcoming" for everyone and allow everyone to choose their "desired experience". In that tweet, it sounded like Musk had already bought Twitter. However, it was unclear whether the deal had already been completed at that point in time.
The takeover plans had led to many questions in recent months about the direction in which Twitter could develop. Critics fear that Musk could severely limit the moderation of content, for example in the fight against hate messages and misinformation. However, this environment is unlikely to be very attractive to advertisers on whom Twitter depends.
In May, the feisty entrepreneur caused a stir when he announced he wanted to reverse the ban on former US President Donald Trump from Twitter. Trump's Twitter account was suspended after the January 6, 2021 Capitol storming.
