Billionaire Elon Musk completed the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter
Billionaire Elon Musk completed the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter late Thursday evening, and his first step after completing the deal was to dismiss the social media company's top leadership, which he accused of misleading him about the number of spam accounts on the platform.
The CEO of electric car maker Tesla said he wants to "defeat" Twitter spam bots, make the algorithms that determine how content is delivered to its users publicly available, and prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber of hate and division, even as it curbs censorship.
However, Musk did not provide details on how he would achieve all this and who would run the company. He said he plans to cut jobs, leaving about 7,500 Twitter employees worried about their future. He also said Thursday that he did not buy Twitter to make more money but to "try to help the humanity that I love."
dismissals
Informed sources told Reuters that Musk has fired Twitter CEO Paraj Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Sejal, and Chief Legal and Policy Officer Vijaya Jade. The sources added that Agrawal and Sejal were at Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco when the deal was completed and were taken outside the headquarters. Neither Twitter nor Musk or its executives immediately responded to requests for comment.
And “Bloomberg” agency said a few days ago that Elon Musk pledged to complete his purchase of the social networking platform “Twitter” by Friday, after several months of negotiations with company officials, as well as many financial institutions that will finance the deal.
In a video conference meeting, last Monday, Musk concluded his agreement with bank officials who will finance him by about 13 billion dollars, as part of the deal, which amounts to about 44 billion dollars, according to the agency.
Musk plans to cut nearly 75% of Twitter's 7,500 employees, reducing the company's headcount to just over 2,000.
And “Bloomberg” reported before the completion of the deal, that the current company’s management, regardless of the deal, plans to reduce the salaries of workers by about 800 million dollars by the end of next year, a number that would mean the departure of nearly a quarter of the workforce, according to company documents and interviews with people familiar with the matter. on its deliberations.
Close the acquisition
The $44 billion acquisition is the culmination of an impressive streak, full of twists and turns, that has raised doubts about whether Musk will complete the deal. It began on April 4, when Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in the company, making him its largest shareholder.
The world's richest person then agreed to join Twitter's board of directors, but declined at the last minute and offered to buy the company instead for $54.20 a share, an offer that Twitter was not sure whether to interpret as other Musk jokes about cannabis.
Musk's offer was genuine, and over the course of just one weekend later in April, the two sides reached an agreement at the price he proposed. This happened without Musk taking any due diligence on the company's confidential information, as is usual in the acquisition process.
Mask doubts
And in the weeks that followed, Musk had other ideas. He publicly complained that he thought the Twitter spam accounts were far above the platform's estimate, published in organizational filings, at less than 5% of monetized daily active users. His lawyers then accused Twitter of not complying with his requests for information on the matter.
The acrimony led to Musk notifying Twitter on July 8 that he had terminated their deal on the grounds that Twitter misled him about the bots and had not cooperated with him. Four days later, Twitter sued Musk in Delaware, where the company was founded, to force him to complete the deal.
By then, shares of social media companies and the broader stock market had plummeted on concerns that raising interest rates at the Federal Reserve, as it sought to combat inflation, would push the US economy into recession. Twitter accused Musk of wanting to exit the deal because he believed he overpaid.
Most legal analysts said Twitter has the strongest arguments and is likely to prevail in court. Their view didn't change even after Twitter's former head of security, Peter Zatko, came forward as a whistleblower in August to claim that the company had failed to disclose weaknesses in its security and data privacy.
On October 4, just as Twitter's lawyers were set to topple Musk's dismissal before their trial began later in the month, he made a new twist and offered to complete the deal as he promised. A Delaware judge gave him an October 28 deadline to close the deal and avoid prosecution.
Twitter Head
Since then, Musk has been indulged in the hype of the deal, then changed his description on his Twitter profile to Twitter Chief. He also tried to allay fears among employees of massive layoffs, assuring advertisers that his previous criticism of Twitter's content editing rules wouldn't hurt its appeal. Twitter shares ended trading Thursday in New York, up 0.3% at $53.86, at a small discount to $54.20 per share.
Twitter will not be a free site for everyone
Ahead of a deadline to complete the Twitter deal and avoid a new court date, billionaire Elon Musk sought to reassure advertisers that the platform would not turn out to be an extremely unsavory place to spend their dollars.
"Obviously Twitter cannot become a free-for-all where anything can be said without consequences!" the Tesla CEO and the world's richest man tweeted in a message to Twitter advertisers.
The statement responds to the fear expressed by some progressives that Musk's Twitter will be overtaken by hate speech and disinformation since Musk said he would back down from content moderation. In the memo, Musk told advertisers that most of the speculation about why he bought the platform "was wrong."
The real reason for the acquisition
“The reason I own Twitter is that it is important for the future of civilization to have a shared digital city arena, where a wide range of beliefs can be discussed in a healthy way, without resorting to violence,” he wrote. To the far right and echo chambers to the far left are breeding more hatred and dividing our society.”
Musk indicated that he did not buy Twitter; "To make more money, I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love." Musk said Twitter should be a platform that follows the laws of the Earth and be "warm and welcoming, where you can choose the experience you want according to your preferences."
Worry
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that many advertisers are concerned about Musk's expected plans to reduce content moderation and potential conflicts of interest with car ads, since he is also the CEO of Tesla. The newspaper reported that some advertisers are even afraid that he will remove the ads from the platform completely.
But Musk expressed confidence in the ad, saying that "advertising, when done right, can make you happy, entertain and educate." "Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the world's most respected advertising platform that enhances your brand and grows your organization," Musk added.