Twitter’s top brass gutted as Elon Musk’s takeover begins
Elon Musk reportedly finalized his $44 billion takeover of social media platform Twitter on Oct. 27 and has started his tenure at the company by cleaning house at the upper executive level.
According to sources from multiple outlets, CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of legal and policy Vijaya Gadde are reported to have been sacked with Musk accusing them of misleading him over the number of spam accounts on the platform.
Agrawal and Segal were “escorted out” of the company’s headquarters when the deal closed according to Reuters sources.
Musk had previously attempted to back out of the deal to buy Twitter in July accusing the company of making “false and misleading representations” regarding the number of spam and fake accounts.
With the deal now closed, Musk looks to change the platform into a bastion of free speech, change the algorithms to prevent political echo chambers, and remove all fake and spam accounts.
In an open letter to Twitter advertisers on Oct. 27 Musk further reiterated his motivations for buying Twitter, saying it is important for the “future of civilization to have a common digital town square” free from political polarization.
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022He added he purchased the platform “to help humanity, whom I love” and penned his aspirations for Twitter to become the “most respected advertising platform in the world.”
Related: How Crypto Twitter could change under Musk’s leadership
Musk is aware of the “meme-ability” of the prolonged deal and was filmed walking into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Oct. 26 carrying a sink tweeting “let that sink in” while also changing his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit.”
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022On Oct. 20 The Washington Post reported Musk planned to cut up to 75% of Twitter's staff, but a report from Bloomberg days later disclosed that Musk told Twitter staff on Oct. 26 during his visit that the statements were false and he doesn’t plan to sack any staff. However, those at the top of the Twitter tree have just found out otherwise.