The acquisition of Twitter has been completed. Multiple insiders report that the CEO and CFO have been fired by Elon Musk. Thousands of employees fear for their jobs.
“The bird is freed”, Musk tweeted after completing the acquisition. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla bought the social media giant for €44 billion. The deal is anything but ordinary. By his own admission, Musk did not acquire the organization for financial gain. The new owner claims he wants to guard freedom of expression. “To try to help humanity, whom I love”, Musk said.
Elon Musk and Twitter
Twitter is one of the world’s largest communication platforms. In 2021, more than 300 million users used the platform daily to exchange ideas and opinions. Controversy is almost inevitable.
Twitter has been criticized in recent years for secrecy about the algorithms used to recommend posts to users. Critics fear that Twitter influences the ideation of users by pushing political messages
Elon Musk, the company’s new owner, presents himself as a saving grace. The executive says he wants to make Twitter’s content algorithms transparent and reduce the use of spambots, which have been used at scale for political campaigns in the past.
Layoffs
Leading up to the acquisition, Musk announced a cost-cutting plan. The new owner said he’s prepared to lay off employees at scale. Immediately after the acquisition, Musk backup up his words. According to multiple insiders, CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and legal chief Vijaya Gadde have been fired.
The insiders described that Agrawal and Segal were physically present at Twitter’sheadquarters in San Francisco while the deal was finalized. After the completion, Agrawal and Segal were escorted out, the sources said.
The three were involved in a conflict with Musk prior to the acquisition. The top executive accused the managers of misleading himself and shareholders about the number of fake accounts active on Twitter.
Most Twitter employees fear for their jobs. In a recent survey, less than 10 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 employees said they will still be working for the company in three months. 38 percent said they won’t and 55 percent are unsure.
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