New York, Oct 28: “Let the good times roll”, billionaire Elon Musk tweeted today, hours after he completed his acquisition of Twitter for a whopping USD 44 billion and started off as the social media giant’s new owner by firing its top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal.
“The bird is freed,” Musk had tweeted on Friday after completing the takeover of Twitter and firing the social media giant’s four top executives, including Agrawal, legal executive Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
“Spoiler Alert. Let the good times roll,” Musk, 51, tweeted early this morning after ending Thursday night with his acquisition of Twitter.
Musk, a self-styled “free speech absolutist”, has been critical of Twitter’s management and its moderation policies.
“At least one of the executives who was fired was escorted out of Twitter’s office,” a report in the New York Times reported.
The deal’s closing removes a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Twitter’s business, employees and shareholders for much of the year, the CNN commented.
After initially agreeing to buy the company in April, Musk spent months attempting to get out of the deal, first citing concerns about the number of bots on the platform and later allegations raised by a company whistleblower.
Agrawal, 38, was appointed Twitter CEO in November last year after the social media site’s co-founder Jack Dorsey had stepped down.
An IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, Agrawal had joined Twitter over a decade ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees at the company.
“Agrawal, who was appointed Twitter’s chief executive last year, had clashed” with Musk “publicly and privately in recent months about the takeover,” the NYT report said.
Musk also “singled out” Gadde, 48, “criticising her for her role in content moderation decisions at the company”, it added.
As the Twitter account of former US President Donald Trump was permanently suspended in January last year, Hyderabad-born Gadde was at the forefront of this dramatic decision undertaken within days of the attempted insurrection by pro-Trump supporters at the US Capitol.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone thanked Agrawal, Segal and Gadde for their “massive contribution” to the business.
“Thank you to @paraga, @vijaya , and @nedsegal for the collective contribution to Twitter. Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each!” Stone tweeted. (PTI)
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