Elon Musk has completed his takeover of Twitter and has already 'fired top executives'
Stewart Perrie
Featured Image Credit: Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa-pool/dpa/Alamy Live News. Elon Musk/Twitter.
Elon Musk has finally completed his takeover of Twitter.
The tech billionaire was in a race against time as the deadline to complete the deal was going to run out on Friday (October 28).
However, it looks like he's managed to dot all the i's and cross all the t's just in the nick of time.
Twitter investor Ross Gerber, chief executive of Gerber Kawasaki Investments in California, told the BBC that the deal is now done.
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"I think the court pushed him over the line," he said.
"Quite frankly, this has sort of been a disaster from the beginning, of course, starting off very aggressively courting Twitter in a way that really forced Twitter to the table... then getting all upset and having a public spat over what to me was pretty well known issues."
However, it seems like it's been an absolute bloodbath straight from the get-go.
Several American news outlets are reporting that Musk has fired several top executives as one of his first orders.
The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and others say Twitter’s chief executive, Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer, Ned Segal, top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel, Sean Edgett, have all been booted.
Sources within the company say at least one of the executives had to be escorted out of the building.
UNILAD has reached out to Twitter for comment to confirm the allegations.
Musk revealed earlier this week the reason behind why he launched his multi-billion dollar takeover of the social media company.
“There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
“Most of it has been wrong.”
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
He explained: “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
Musk added: "I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t to it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
He rocked up to the Twitter offices with a kitchen sink and told staff to let the deal 'sink in'. Classic.
Musk also could keep the staff bloodbath going.
According to documents seen by The Washington Post, the tech billionaire wants to let go nearly 75 per cent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, which will reduce its staff to just over 2,000 people.
The company was apparently planning to decrease its payroll by USD $800 million (AUD $1.2b or £714m) by the end of next year, which would subsequently cut almost a quarter of its workers.
Bloomberg reported that in April, Musk told investors in his initial pitch that he planned on laying off a significant portion of the company's staff.