Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the company confirmed in a securities filing Friday, placing the world’s richest man in charge of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.
Musk bought Twitter: who won and who lost? 1:50The company said the deal “became effective” on Thursday, as part of a filing notifying its intention to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.
After completing the purchase, Elon Musk fired CEO Parag Agarwal and two other executives, according to two people familiar with the decision.
The closing of the deal removes the cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Twitter’s business, employees and shareholders for years. After initially agreeing to buy the company in April, Musk spent months trying to get out of the deal, first citing concerns about the number of bots on the platform and then allegations made by the company’s whistleblowers.
But Musk’s acquisition and the immediate dismissal of some of its top executives now raise new questions for the future of the platform and many corners of society affected by it.
Musk has said he plans to rethink Twitter’s content moderation policies to usher in a more maximalist approach to “free speech.” The billionaire has also said that he disagrees with Twitter’s practice of permanent bans for people who repeatedly violate its rules, raising the possibility that many previously banned users could revisit the platform. .
Perhaps more immediately, many will be watching to see how soon Musk can allow former President Donald Trump to return to the stage, as he previously said he would.
By taking those steps, Musk alone could transform the political and media ecosystem, transform public discourse online, and disrupt the nascent field of conservative-leaning social media properties that are largely responding to complaints. have emerged. About restrictions and restrictions on Twitter and other services.
See what Elon Musk brought to the Twitter offices 0:47Musk, a prominent and controversial Twitter user, joined the company earlier this year after he acquired a more than 9% stake in its stock. After announcing that he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder, Musk accepted and later withdrew from a bid to join the company’s board.
Musk then offered to buy Twitter at a significant premium, threatened a hostile takeover, and signed a “seller-friendly” deal to buy the company, which involved due diligence. Within weeks, Musk began expressing concerns about the proliferation of fake and spam accounts on Twitter and eventually tried to back out of the deal. However, Twitter sued him for honoring the acquisition deal, and as a testament to the contentious legal battle, Musk said he would go ahead with the deal on its original terms.
Earlier this week Musk visited Twitter headquarters in San Francisco to meet with employees. He also posted an open letter to Twitter advertisers, saying he doesn’t want the platform to become a “free-for-all hell where you can say anything with no consequences.”
