Musk takes control of Twitter, toppling top executives
Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted the company’s CEO, chief financial officer and general counsel, two people familiar with the deal said Thursday night.
People will not say if all the paperwork for the deal, which was originally worth $44 billion, was signed or if the deal was closed. But it said Musk was in charge of the social media platform and fired Parag CEO Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and General Counsel Vijaya Gadde. No one wants to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the deal.
The departures arrived just hours before the deadline set by the Delaware judge to finalize the deal on Friday. She threatened to schedule a trial if no agreement was reached.
The big staffing moves are believed to be the first of many changes by Musk, who says he can boost Twitter’s subscribers and revenue.
Earlier in the day, Musk tried to placate nimble Twitter advertisers who said he was buying the platform to help humanity and didn’t want it to become a “free hell for all”.
The message appears to address the concern of advertisers – Twitter’s main source of revenue – that Musk’s plan to promote free speech by cutting content moderation opens the risk of direct poisoning. online more and drive away users.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it’s important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square where a wide variety of beliefs can be debated in a healthy way without using to violence,” Musk wrote in an unusually long message to the Tesla CEO, who often expresses his thoughts in one-line tweets.
He continued: “There is now a great danger that social media will split the echo chambers of the right and left wings further, creating more hatred and dividing our society.”
Musk has previously expressed his distaste for advertising and Twitter’s reliance on it, suggesting a greater focus on ads. business model Paid subscriptions, for example, won’t allow large corporations to set policy on how social media works. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to become “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”
Note that Musk’s change of opinion that Twitter is unfairly violating freedom of speech Pinar Yildirim, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, says rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content.
But people also recognize that not moderating content is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.
“You don’t want a place where consumers are simply bombarded with stuff they don’t want to hear about and the platform isn’t held accountable,” Yildirim said.
Musk said Twitter should be “warm and welcoming to everyone” and allow users to choose the experience they want.
“I don’t do it for money,” he said of the pending deal. “I do this to try to help humanity, the people I hold dear. And I do so with humility, realizing that we have failed to pursue this goal, despite our best efforts. strength, is a very real possibility.”
A deadline to close the deal on Friday was ordered by the Delaware Premier Court in early October. This is the latest step in a battle that began in April with Musk signing a deal to acquire Twitter, then try to withdraw from it, led to Twitter suing the Tesla CEO to force him to make the acquisition. If the two sides fail to meet Friday’s deadline, the next step could be a trial in November that could lead to a judge forcing Musk to complete the deal.
But Musk has signaled that the deal will succeed. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changing his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Into Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”
And overnight, the New York Stock Exchange informed investors that it would suspend trading in Twitter’s shares before the opening bell on Friday in anticipation of the company going private. under Musk.
Musk is expected to speak directly to Twitter employees on Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. Despite the internal embarrassment and low morale attached to concerns about layoffs or destruction of the company’s culture and operations, Twitter leaders this week at least welcomed appearances and messaging. by Musk.
Top sales manager Sarah Personette, the company’s chief customer officer, said she had a “great discussion” with Musk on Wednesday and appeared to confirm his Thursday message with Musk. advertisers.
“Our ongoing commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged,” Personette tweeted Thursday. “Toward the future!”
Musk’s apparent enthusiasm for visiting Twitter headquarters this week was in stark contrast to one of his earlier suggestions: The building should be turned into a shelter for the homeless because very few employees actually worked there.
washington articles last week’s report Musk told potential investors that he plans to cut three-quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes the company’s owner. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.
Musk spent months figuring out Twitter’s “spam bots” and sometimes making conflicting statements about Twitter’s problems and how to fix them. But he did share some specifics about his plans for social media communication.
Thursday’s note to advertisers reveals a new focus on ad revenue, particularly the need for Twitter to deliver more “relevant ads” — which often means targeted ads based on into the collection and analysis of users’ personal information.
Yildirim says that, unlike Facebook, Twitter hasn’t been good at targeting ads to what users want to see. She says Musk’s message shows he wants to fix that.
Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said Musk has good reason to avoid a major shakeup to Twitter’s ad business because Twitter’s revenue has taken a hit from the weakening economy, months of uncertainty surrounding Musk’s proposed takeover, changing consumer behavior and the fact that “no other revenue stream awaits in the wings.”
“Even loosening content moderation on the platform is sure to spook advertisers, many of whom have found that Twitter’s brand safety tools fall short of that,” Enberg said. with other social platforms,” says Enberg.
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