Billionaire Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion (over Rs 3,36,910 crore) takeover of microblogging platform Twitter, the BBC reported on Friday, citing an investor in the firm.
Soon after taking over the social platform, Musk removed Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, Reuters reported, citing persons familiar with the matter. Musk had earlier accused them of having misled him about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
On Friday, Musk posted a tweet saying: “The bird is freed”, in a reference to the Twitter icon. He also updated his Twitter bio, in which he described himself as “chief Twit”.
Earlier on Thursday, Musk posted a video of him entering the Twitter headquarters carrying a sink, with the caption: “let that sink in”.
The takeover took place shortly before a deadline set by a United States judge in response to a lawsuit by Twitter demanding that Musk complete the merger agreement. The court had told the chief executive officer of electric car firm Tesla to close the deal by October 28, failing which it would schedule a trial in November.
In a message addressed to advertisers, Musk said that he acquired Twitter because it was “important to the future of human civilisation to have a common digital town square”, where a wide range of beliefs could be debated in a healthy manner.
“I didn’t do it [buying Twitter] to make more money,” he said. “I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
The Tesla CEO also said that there was a great danger that social media will “splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society”.
Musk had first proposed to buy Twitter on April 26.
However, he had announced on July 9 that he was terminating the deal to buy Twitter, claiming that the microblogging platform had breached the buyout agreement on multiple counts. The Tesla CEO said that he took the decision as Twitter did not provide enough information about the number of spam and fake accounts on its platform.
Twitter sued Musk on July 12 after the he backed out of the deal to buy the social media company.
Musk subsequently filed counterclaims to the suit, accusing Twitter of misleading its investors about the “key metrics” of the company, including the details about the fake accounts.
On October 5, the Tesla CEO proposed to buy Twitter for $44 billion – the original price he had offered to the social media company before the negotiations turned into litigation in July.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!