Elon Musk Completes $44 Billion Twitter Takeover, Fires Top Executives, and Makes Himself CEO

Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter and instated himself as CEO, just hours before a court-ordered deadline to buy the business expired, according to multiple reports.

twitter elon musk
In a reference to Twitter's logo, billionaire Musk tweeted "the bird is freed," after reportedly firing several top executives, including the chief executive, Parag Agrawal. Musk earlier changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit."

Other senior figures ousted by Musk reportedly included Ned Segal, chief financial officer, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety.

The finalized deal caps a chaotic acquisition saga that began with Musk originally offering to buy Twitter for $44 billion in April – a deal that Twitter accepted – before Musk in May put the takeover "temporarily on hold" because of a dispute over the number of fake or spam accounts that Twitter claimed to have.

In July, Musk decided he no longer wanted to buy Twitter and attempted to call off the purchase. Twitter in turn filed a lawsuit to force Musk to go on with the sale. By October, Musk once again reversed course by proposing a purchase at the original price.


Musk's executive firings followed news last week that the billionaire planned to slash Twitter staff numbers by 75% in an effort to pay down the company's debt burden. Musk later dismissed those reports, saying he would not cut that percentage of employees.

Attention now turns to Twitter's future direction, and how Musk's plans will affect the social media platform with more than 230 million users. "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 said in a statement posted to his Twitter account on Thursday. Musk 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.

In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.

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. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.

That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.

Musk ended by stating his belief that advertising, when done right, can "delight, entertain, and inform," and that Twitter aspires to be "the most respected advertising platform in the world."

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Top Rated Comments

contacos Avatar
35 months ago
Too soon?



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Score: 150 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fozziebear71 Avatar
35 months ago
And all the he/him's and she/her's that said they would leave the platform if he bought it are now saying he'll have to kick them off. Kind of like they were moving to another country if Trump won. It's glorious.
Score: 88 Votes (Like | Disagree)
redbeard331 Avatar
35 months ago

This is so great. Twitter was a tool to spread woke ideology and censored any opposing opinions. I got banned from Twitter for 30 days for writing that each time I see Greta Thunberg trending, I hope that she got eaten by sharks.

If a private platform is a place were hundreds of millions communicate, it should not have the power to censor anything based on strange "community guidelines". Otherwise these problem pose a great thread to democracy. The funny thing is that people from the left see it as a threat if those platform do NOT censor content. Since when was having NO censorship a threat to democracy?

I also got banned from Facebook when I wrote something like "I do not like modern women. They only focus on their career. So I swipe left if a woman has a job. Those women should better marry their boss. That helps boosting their career". That post may be controversial and women might not like it, but on woke platforms like Facebook it is enough to get banned for a while. I hope Twitter will be different now.
What the hell is “woke ideology”?

And why do you wish for a young girl who has more balls and brains than every conservative in the universe to be killed?

This is what we can expect to see twitter full of now.
Score: 81 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nerdAFK Avatar
35 months ago
The man gets too much hate, not enough credit.

Also, have some fun! Why so serious?



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Score: 78 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Danfango Avatar
35 months ago
I don't think anyone actually realises what the notion of free speech is.

You can indeed speak freely on Twitter now. But you're going to look like a dick on the public record. Firstly people will challenge you and knock you down because that's their right to do so. Secondly you're doing it on the public record and believe me there are software companies out there right now with huge databases of twitter content they can objectively tie to your reputation which will follow you around until you're dead.

Don't say anything regrettable in public.

Treat each other with respect and as equals, not crow over your superiority and your ideological superiority. Life is better that way.
Score: 65 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kylo83 Avatar
35 months ago
Amazing news
Score: 64 Votes (Like | Disagree)