Elon Musk likely to be Twitter's next CEO; plans to do away with permanent user bans
By Team Newsable | First Published Oct 28, 2022, 1:40 PM ISTElon Musk intends to replace Parag Agrawal, who was fired along with other major executives following the takeover, according to a person familiar with the situation. The billionaire is expected to remain CEO in the interim but may cede the position in the long run.
Elon Musk intends to assume the role of a chief executive officer at Twitter Inc. after completing his $44 billion acquisition, in addition to leading Tesla Inc. and SpaceX.
Musk plans to replace Parag Agrawal, fired along with other major executives following the takeover, according to a person familiar with the matter. The billionaire is expected to remain CEO in the interim but may eventually cede the position in the long run, according to the source. Representatives from Twitter declined to comment.
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After six months of public and legal wrangling, Elon Musk's acquisition places the world's richest man in charge of a struggling social network. Changing leadership was one of Musk's first moves. Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy, and trust; Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, who joined Twitter in 2017; and Sean Edgett, the company's general counsel since 2012. According to Bloomberg News, Edgett was escorted out of the building.
According to the source, Elon Musk also intends to do away with permanent user bans as he does not believe in lifelong prohibitions. Sources added that people who were previously banned on the platform might be allowed to return, though it was unclear whether that included former President Donald Trump.
The takeover concludes a complicated saga that began in January with the billionaire's quiet acquisition of a significant stake in the company, his growing dissatisfaction with how it is run, and an eventual merger agreement that he later spent months trying to unravel.
The billionaire's arrival will cause an immediate disruption to Twitter's operations, partly because many of his ideas for changing the company are at odds with how it has been run for years. He has said that he wants to ensure 'free speech' on the social network, which is likely to imply looser content moderation standards and the restoration of some high-profile accounts that were banned from Twitter for breaking the rules, like Donald Trump's.
Twitter suspended Donald Trump's account days after the 2021 Capitol insurgency, citing the 'risk of further incitement of violence.' With the former president widely expected to run for president again in 2024, a return to Twitter could provide him with an opportunity to turbocharge his message. Elon Musk's initiatives, in general, threaten to undo years of Twitter's efforts to reduce bullying and abuse on the platform.
Musk arranged meetings between Tesla engineers and Twitter product leadership, and he planned to address the staff on Friday, according to sources. According to the people, Twitter's engineers could no longer make changes to code as of noon Thursday in San Francisco to ensure that everything about the product stays the same before the deal closes.
Since the transaction was announced in April, Twitter employees have been bracing for layoffs, and Musk floated the idea of cost cuts to banking partners when he was initially fundraising for the deal. According to a person familiar with the matter, Elon Musk plans to cut 75 per cent of Twitter's workforce, which currently numbers around 7,500 and expects revenue to double within three years, according to some potential investors.
However, according to sources, Musk, while visiting Twitter headquarters on Wednesday, told employees that he does not intend to lay off 75 per cent of the company's employees when he takes over.
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