Since the acquisition, Twitter became a private company and lost even its CEO, Parag Aragwal
The USD 44 billion deal of Elon Musk to purchase Twitter is finally in full force. The acquisition was completed on 27th October 2022. After the acquisition, Twitter had significant business changes, switching from a publicly traded company to a private one and firing most of its top executives, including CEO Parag Aragwal. Three other executives were also escorted out of Twitter’s headquarters in San Fransisco, United States. These include Ned Segal, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Vijaya Gaadde, legal executive, and Sean Edgett, general counsel.
After his acquisition, he tweeted “The bird is freed”. The acquisition took this long because there were a series of controversies and issues, including one time where Musk accused Twitter for not following his requests of removing spambots which led to the cancellation of the deal before it got revived again.
Musk purchased Twitter with the objective of making the social network a home for free speech. This includes the unbanning of former US president Donald J. Trump who was blocked from using Twitter after the storming of the US Capitol building last January 2021. Although he announced that he will no longer return to Twitter should the ban be reversed. Instead, he created his own social media platform called Truth Social.
Another of Musk’s objectives is to remove “spambots” on Twitter and also notify users on how their content will be presented throughout the social media platform.
Despite his ambitions, Musk is yet to clarify on how he will achieve these. He is also yet to say who will run the company. There’s not much details given by Musk aside from the goals he mentioned prior to the deal. He did say that he bought Twitter “to try to help humanity, whom I love”.
Musk also said that he doesn’t want the platform to become a cesspool of hate and division. “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” he tweeted. “Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world.”
Source: The New York Times, Reuters, BBC