On his first day as Twitter's new boss, here's what Elon Musk said

Hours after completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and beginning his tenure as the social media giant's new owner, "Let the good times roll," tweeted Elon Musk on Friday. 

"The bird is freed," Musk tweeted after completing the takeover of Twitter and firing 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 Friday morning. "I will be digging in more today," Musk said in response to a tweet from a user named Catturd, who said he will tweet a message "every day to see if anything changes." I'm still Shadowbanned, Ghostbanned, and Searchbanned, and Twitter has removed 1200 followers, as usual. Nothing has changed; I will report again tomorrow."

 

 

Musk, a self-described "free speech absolutist," has criticised Twitter's management and moderation policies. According to reports, "At least one of the sacked execs was escorted out of Twitter's office,"

According to CNN, closing the deal removes a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Twitter's business, employees, and shareholders for much of the year.

Musk spent months attempting to back out of the deal after initially agreeing to buy the company in April, citing concerns about the number of bots on the platform and later allegations raised by a company whistleblower.

Agrawal (38) took over as CEO of Twitter in November of last year after co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down. IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, Parag Agrawal joined Twitter more than ten years ago when fewer than 1,000 people were working there. According to reports, Agrawal, appointed CEO of Twitter last year, had a public and private spat with Musk about the takeover in recent months.

Musk also singled out Gadde (48), criticising her role in content moderation decisions at the company, according to the report.

Hyderabad-born Gadde played a key role in the controversial decision to permanently suspend former US President Donald Trump's Twitter account in January last year. This action was taken just days after a pro-Trump uprising at the US Capitol.

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, thanked Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde for their "massive contribution" to the company.

Musk talked with engineers and advertising executives after arriving at the company's San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday. Musk recently changed his Twitter bio to Chief Twit.

By easing the restrictions on content moderation, increasing algorithm transparency, cultivating subscription businesses, and laying off employees, he has pledged to transform Twitter.

Twitter accepted Musk's offer to buy the social media service in April and take it private.

On the other hand, Musk quickly cast doubt on his intentions to follow through on the agreement, claiming that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.

When Musk announced his intention to terminate the agreement, Twitter sued him, alleging that he refused to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders as the agreement he signed no longer served his interests.

Earlier this month, Musk said that if Twitter dropped its litigation, he would pursue the acquisition at the original price of USD 54.20 per share.

According to Twitter's lawyers, the Tesla CEO's proposal invites more mischief and delay.

A judge in Delaware Chancery Court eventually ruled that Musk had until October 28 to finalise the Twitter deal or face trial.

Musk wrote a message to advertisers on Thursday to reassure them that social messaging services would not devolve into a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!

Musk wrote in the statement, "I acquired Twitter because having a shared digital town square where a wide variety of opinions can be argued healthily without resorting to violence is vital to the future of civilisation."

There is currently a significant risk that social media will splinter into far-right and far-left echo chambers, generating more hate and dividing our society.

On Friday, the New York Stock Exchange announced that trading in Twitter's shares had been halted, citing a "merger effective" reason.
    
Musk's plans for increasing Twitter's value may include reducing its workforce, as he has previously hinted. Previous reports suggested that he intended to lay off 75 per cent of his employees, but he is said to have told Twitter employees this week that this is not the case, according to CNN.

(With inputs from PTI)

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