Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has completed the acquisition of Twitter Inc. and reportedly fired the company’s CEO and CFO. “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square,” he said. “There is currently 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.”
Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc. and has changed his Twitter profile description to “Chief Twit.” On Thursday night, he tweeted:
The bird is freed.
Immediately after the deal closed, Musk reportedly fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, the social media platform’s head of legal affairs and chief content moderator. Gadde headed up the team at Twitter that made the decision to ban former U.S. President Donald Trump after the Capitol riot in 2021.
On Thursday, Musk tweeted explaining his motivation for acquiring Twitter. The billionaire detailed: “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
He continued, “There is currently 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,” elaborating:
That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.
Addressing Twitter advertisers, Musk explained: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
Emphasizing that “It is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content,” the new Twitter boss concluded:
Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) confirmed Thursday that his company helped fund Musk’s Twitter acquisition, tweeting: “Our intern says we wired the $500 million 2 days ago, probably just as I was being asked about Elon/Twitter.” Binance is among the 18 companies that committed to helping Musk fund the deal.
The Tesla CEO went to Twitter’s headquarters on Wednesday with a sink to close the deal. “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” he tweeted. According to Bloomberg, Musk told Twitter employees during his visit that he is not planning to lay off 75% of the staff.
Do you think Twitter will be a better platform under the leadership of Elon Musk? Let us know in the comments section below.
