Elon Musk Seals the Twitter Deal Ahead of the Deadline and Starts Things Off by Firing People

Elon Musk’s relationship with Twitter has been quite the will-they-won’t-they affair. He became the largest shareholder before starting to criticize the platform, then he threatened to back out of the deal just to turn around and revive it at the last minute. The result? Elon Musk completed the $44 billion deal for ownership of Twitter ahead of the deadline, and he immediately started firing people once he did.

The story between the billionaire Tesla CEO and Twitter is a long one, but it looked like it was going to come to a volatile end not long ago. There was even a trial set to settle the acquisition dispute between the two parties, which was pushed back until 5 PM on October 28th.

The impending trial had people sweating as they counted down the days, with the earlier portion of the week seeing his name all over the news. People wondered whether he would finally seal the deal or whether the dispute would see the inside of a courtroom. But yesterday, a mere day before the deadline, he finally completed the deal.

The monumental deal saw Elon Musk spend $44 billion on Twitter, ushering in a new era for one of the most influential social media platforms in the world. However, he did not take over quietly. Not only did he sprinkle in a bit of his usual fanfare, but he also quickly started to fire top executives at the company.

Those pushed out include chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, the company’s general counsel Sean Edgett, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety.

It does not come as a surprise, though. Musk has been vocal in his criticisms of the company’s outgoing management when it comes to things like content moderation. That includes actions taken against former president Donald Trump, whose account he said he plans on restoring.

That being the case, Musk sent a tweet Thursday that said, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Whether he will find the proper balance is yet to be seen.

It all seems to fit his previous suggestions that he wants to loosen standards and thus reduce policing of harmful content, including but not limited to misinformation and hate speech.

There seems to be a lot on the horizon at Twitter. There are plans for a company-wide town hall, as well as expectations for the company to go private. That would mean dissolving the board of directors and ending public trading, which would place the reins even more firmly in Musk’s hands.

There have also been reports that Musk plans to fire as much as 75% of Twitter’s workforce, which would cut the employees working at the company from 7,500 to around 2,000. While employees have protested the plan, Musk has long claimed the company is bloated and that the workers have a “strong left-wing bias.”

Although Elon Musk finally bought Twitter, he has already shown he has plans to shake things up by firing executives. It would not be surprising if he started making many of the other changes he has spoken about in the near future as well. The deal is sealed, but the roller coaster is not over yet.