After months of waffling, lawsuits, verbal mudslinging, and a narrow escape from a full-fledged trial. Elon Musk has finally fulfilled his $44 billion purchase of Twitter. On October 26, the Tesla CEO was seen entering the Twitter headquarters with a sink, in keeping with his nature as a self-presentation artist. He captioned a video of the action he tweeted with “let that sink in!”
The deal, which was first announced in April, encountered numerous roadblocks along the way, including Musk’s concerns about the number of spam bots on Twitter, and Twitter’s use of a poison pill to prevent the takeover.
According to a letter from Musk’s attorneys to Twitter’s lawyers, Musk proposed resuming the deal earlier this month at the originally agreed-upon price of $44 billion, or $54.20 per share.
At market close, Twitter’s share price was $53.70, while Musk’s preferred cryptocurrency, dogecoin (DOGE), which he has suggested could be used for certain payments at Twitter, was trading down 2.3% at 00:43 UTC, after rising 16% in the run-up to the deal’s completion.
Is Donald Trump coming back on Twitter?
Elon Musk now refers to himself as “Chief Twit.”
In a letter to Twitter advertisers, the new company owner made it clear that his free speech mantra has limits: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” He also implies that some moderation will remain: “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.” However, Musk did not provide any details on how he would accomplish this, despite promising to reopen Twitter to previously lifetime-banned accounts.
There are concerns that more lenient free speech policies will allow people who have been banned for hate speech or disinformation to return to the platform. Along with Mr. Trump, this could include political extremists, QAnon supporters, and Covid-19 denialists.
In response to Mr. Musk’s letter, Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the internal market, tweeted, “In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules,” implying that regulators will be tough on any relaxation of Twitter’s policies
Firing key persons as the first move
One of his first actions as new owner concerned personnel, as he fired Twitter executive Parag Agrawal and other company leaders. Elon Musk had the fired executives, specifically Agrawal and Ned Segal, who were in charge of Twitter’s finances, escorted off the premises. Elon Musk also fired policy chief Vijaya Gadde, which appears to be in line with the billionaire’s desire to make Twitter less moderated.
