“The bird is free,” tweeted Elon Musk after completing the purchase of the social network Twitter for 44,000 million dollars. One of his first actions was to fire several of the company’s top managers.
Source: AFP
After months of soap opera, The world’s richest man immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal as well as CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, according to The Washington Post and CNBC. Twitter did not immediately respond. to a request from the AFP in this regard.
Musk had until Friday to close the purchase of the social network, otherwise would have held a trial in November.
The operation dragged on since it launched a purchase offer for 44,000 million dollars in late April, which Twitter reluctantly agreed to.
The billionaire then tried to reverse the agreement unilaterally, accusing the company of having lied to him, but the board of directors of the social network took the matter to court.
until earlier this montha few days after the opening of the process that Twitter seemed set to win, finally proposed closing the deal at the initially agreed price.
The richest man in the world went to the company’s headquarters on Wednesdayand on his Twitter profile changed his introduction to “Chief Twit”, an irony since “twit” means “cretin” in English. Later, he retweeted a picture of himself surrounded by employees of the blue bird network in an office cafe.
But after the dismissals were published in the media, several employees of the Californian group supported the outgoing administration.
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FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION
Musk tried to reassure advertisers on Thursday by ensuring that want to authorize multiple opinions on the social networkwithout making her a “hellish” platform in which everything will be allowed.
“It is important for the future of civilization have a public space online where a wide variety of opinions can debate in a healthy way, without resorting to violence,” he wrote in a message for brandswhich provide most of Twitter’s revenue.
A self-appointed champion of freedom of expression, he has indicated that plans to make content moderation more flexible, fueling fears about an increase in abuse and misinformation on the platform.
He opened, among other things, the door to a return of former US President Donald Trumpvetoed after the assault on the Capitol by his supporters in 2021.
Some supporters of the former Republican president welcomed the potential change in direction of Twitter. “FREE SPEECH!!!” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right congresswoman, tweeted Thursday. this posture causes rejection among certain advertisers They use to prefer to see their advertisements associated with moderate content.
Musk also claimed that does not seek to “make money” with this purchase but “try to help humanity” and maintains that it is essential for the company to display advertisements that correspond to the “needs” of Internet users.
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VOLUNTARY DEPARTURES
The controversial businessman also wants strengthen the fight against spam and made cryptic references to “X”, his vision of a global application that includes messaging, social networks, financial services… like WeChat does in China.
After the purchase, “the culture of the company could change profoundly, and quickly”highlighted Adam Badawi, a professor of law at the University of Berkeley.
According to an article in The Washington Post last week, Musk informed investors that he expected, in the long term, to lay off 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 employees. “That was a blow to a lot of people,” one of the employees told AFP on condition of anonymity.
According to internal company figures, More than 700 employees have already left the Californian group since June.
“They are rather voluntary exits, either for ethical reasons, or for purely financial reasons. Because a company that is not listed is less interesting,” said this worker, referring to Musk’s interest in taking Twitter out of the stock market.
The billionaire stated earlier this month that it is “essential” that another of his companies, Tesla, be listed on Wall Street“Because if the public doesn’t like what Tesla is doing, the public can buy shares and vote differently.”
