Elon Musk tweets the bird is freed, fires CEO and top executives.
Elon Musk has completed the deal and has taken over Twitter late on Thursday. In one of his first actions as the owner of the micro-blogging site, he fired top executives including the chief executive Parag Agrawal and Vijaya Gadde who was Twitter’s legal, public policy, and trust and safety lead.
The news was reported by American media, citing sources close to the matter. The Washington Post and CNBC have reported that Parag Agrawal has been removed from his position in the company. Agrawal had taken been appointed as CEO last year in November after he took the reins from Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of the company. Elon publically criticised the leadership of the company even when he held majority stake (9 per cent).
Another report by Bloomberg has confirmed the oustings and has offered details on other names in the list, other than Agrawal and Gadde. The report suggests that the Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Sean Edgett are on the list. Segal had joined Twitter in 2017; and Edgett has been general counsel at Twitter since 2012.
Agrawal was the one who pursued the deal and its follow-up after Musk’s plans to back out. He was also at the centre of the allegations made against Twitter, by Musk claiming that the platform is hiding the number of bot accounts.
On Wednesday, Musk changed his Twitter bio to Chief Twit and also visited the company headquarters in San Francisco. He entered Twitter HQ with a bathroom sink in his hands and a caption saying “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”
Musk also met Twitter employees in their office. Later he also shared a letter expressing the reasons why he bought Twitter and his future plans with the platform.
Last week, a report claimed that Musk is planning to cut down 75 per cent of the workforce at Twitter after the takeover. While it may seem that the process has begun, Musk assured the employees of the micro-blogging site that he doesn’t plan to remove 75 per cent of the workforce. However, that definitely doesn’t mean that he won’t trim down Twitter’s current headcount.