)
Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter is now official, and he has already fired the social media company's CEO, CFO, head of legal policy, trust, and safety, and general counsel.
According to Bloomberg, this means that Musk now owns 100% of Twitter after completing the deal in which he paid $54.20 per share in cash for a total transaction value of approximately $44 billion.
The first to be fired is Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over the position in November 2021 after co-founder Jack Dorsey resigned. Agrawal has been with Twitter for over a decade, previously serving as Chief Technology Officer.
The writing appeared to be on the wall for Agrawal, as Musk previously stated in an early filing about the deal that he does not "have confidence in management." They've also had some public feuds on Twitter, including one in which Musk responded to Agrawal's Tweet about "defending the company's user metrics by tweeting back a poop emoji."
During the transaction, texts were also revealed that revealed more conflict between the two.
"You are free to tweet 'is Twitter dying?' or anything else about Twitter," Agrawal wrote to Musk on April 9, "but it is my responsibility to tell you that it is not assisting me in making Twitter better in the current context."
Musk responded, "What did you get done this week?" before saying, "I'm not joining the board, this is a waste of time." He also questioned his decision to take a vacation to Hawaii during the deal negotiations.
"Isn't [Agrawal] supposed to be in the war room right now?!?" According to Musk's friend and investor Jason Calacanis.
"Does making a few zoom calls while sipping fruity cocktails at the Four Seasons count?" Musk replied.
While the move may come as a surprise, Agrawal will still receive 100% of his unvested equity awards, amounting to an estimated $42 million.
Vijae Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy, and trust, was in charge of enforcing and creating the platform's rules, and it appears that some of those plans may need to be revised.
Musk has previously stated that he intends to make it a "less-restrictive platform for free speech," which he considers "essential to a functioning democracy." Some believe Musk's words imply that some users who were banned from the platform for dangerous or offensive content, including Donald Trump, may be reinstated.
Ned Segal, Twitter's chief financial officer, is another of the top executives who has been officially let go. He has been with the company since 2017. Finally, general counsel Sean Edgett, who had been with the company since 2012, has left. These four are unlikely to be the last, as Musk is rumoured to be planning to lay off 5,500 employees, or 75% of Twitter's workforce, in the future.
Musk terminated the initial $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter after, among other things, claiming a breach of contract after claiming Twitter wasn't doing enough to reveal how many spam bots and fake accounts were on the platform. He was sued for this termination and was scheduled to appear in court if he did not complete the deal by October 28, but he did so just before the deadline.