The incessant dilly-dallying around Twitter’s fate is over, even as the ownership of the micro-blogging platform has completely shifted to Elon Musk, according to various reports. This, unsurprisingly, has resulted in the immediate firing of top Twitter executives.
According to reports from multiple sources, CEO Parag Agrawal, who had succeeded Jack Dorsey in December 2019, was fired immediately by the new boss. It’s being said that Twitter CFO Ned Segal also suffered the same fate.
Since Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter’s chief customer officer Sarah Personette and its policy chief have also been laid off, as per reports. Meanwhile, Musk has released a message to advertisers highlighting his vision for the future of the platform.
All this comes around six months after he originally offered to buy Twitter for the stupendous cost of $44 billion. He then changed his mind, citing the alleged refusal by the company to release spambot account data.
This led to Twitter pursuing legal action against Musk at the Delaware Court of Chancery with the goal of completing the acquisition. And just prior to his date of appearance for the deposition, he announced that he would, in fact, honor the deal.
Questions now remain on what Musk eventually turns Twitter into, as there’s a lot of conjecture on that front. In the past, he has suggested plans to change the way Twitter’s moderation works, with the apparent aim of changing the policies that saw former US President Donald Trump getting permanently banned from the platform.
To keep advertisers calm, however, he has said in his statement, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Among other probable outcomes of this takeover is a wave of job cuts, a glimpse of which has already been witnessed.
As reported by Reuters, both Parag Agrawal and Ned Segal were escorted out of the Twitter headquarters by security, with Business Insider saying they got $38.7 million and $25.4 million, respectively in payouts. And while Gadde apparently received $12.5 million, Personette was given $11.2 million.
It’s being said that Elon Musk will address Twitter employees on Friday and that’s when we expect to have a clearer idea of things to come.