Elon Musk completes $44bn Twitter takeover

US – According to US media and the firm’s investor, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has completed a $44 billion takeover of Twitter. He tweeted that “the bird is freed”, clearly referring to closing the deal.

A number of top executives, including boss Parag Agrawal, were reportedly fired. This ends the saga in which Twitter went to court to force the multi-billionaire to honor the terms of a takeover deal he tried to avoid.

Mr. Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist”, has been critical of Twitter’s moderation policies, and the news will be met with mixed feelings by Twitter users and staff.

Many US politicians on the right will be celebrating Mr. Agrawal’s departure as chief executive. They see people like Mr. Agrawal and his predecessor Jack Dorsey as hard-pressing liberals.

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They also believe that, under their leadership, Twitter has censored conservative voices, an accusation that Twitter has denied.

According to US media reports, Mr. Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and the firm’s chief legal and policy officer, Vijaya Gadde, are no longer with the company. Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Segal were escorted out of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters after the deal closed, Reuters reported.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone thanked Mr. Agrawal, Mr. Segal, and Ms. Gadde for their “collective contributions” to the business.

According to the New York Stock Exchange website, trading in the social media platform shares will be suspended on Friday.

Mr. Musk said he bought a social media platform to help humanity and he wanted “civilization to have a common digital urban area.”

Earlier this week, Mr. Musk tweeted a video of him walking into Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco with a kitchen sink captioned, “Let it sink!” He also changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit”

In a recent earnings call, the Tesla founder said that Twitter was “an asset that has been on the wane for a long time, but has incredible potential, although apparently I and other investors are overpaying for Twitter right now.”