US2 min(s) read
Published 09:35 28 Oct 2022 GMT
Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has commenced.
After months of negotiations, the Tesla boss has finally completed his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform, BBC News reports.
It's safe to say Musk has made a strong first impression on the company. He began his leadership by reportedly firing top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.
According to a report by Sky News, Musk claims the top executives misled him over the number of spam accounts on Twitter. It has also been reported that Agrawal and Segal were in the company's San Francisco head office when the deal closed - and that they were escorted out of the building.
Newly crowned Twitter boss Musk celebrated his takeover fittingly with a tweet. "The bird is free," he wrote to his 110.5 million followers.
He also changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" and marked his location as "Twitter HQ".
Musk first announced his intention to buy Twitter back in April, when he made an eye-watering $41 billion bid for the social media platform.
Since then, he has tussled with Twitter's top execs, who took him to court after he tried to rip up his initial offer.
However, the world's richest man made it clear he was set to close the deal earlier this week when he posted a video of himself striding into Twitter's headquarters carrying a sink.
"Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in," he captioned the clip.
He also shared a statement explaining why he had been so keen to purchase Twitter, claiming he did it "to help humanity".
"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," Musk wrote.
"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," he added.
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entertainment news3 min(s) read
Published 14:39 12 May 2023 GMT
Elon Musk has announced that he has appointed a new CEO for Twitter.
The 51-year-old Tesla billionaire purchased the social media platform last October for a staggering $44 billion and immediately introduced a huge shake-up in the way the company is run.
Musk fired the previous chief executive, Parag Agrawal, and hundreds of global employees that included data scientists, product managers, and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability. This resulted in it losing a large amount of its functionality.
The once richest man in the world even orchestrated new paid-for services that include the $8 blue check verification and two-factor authentication.
After a tumultuous few months - which included several celebrities leaving after his takeover - it looks like Musk is finally ready to step down from the CEO role as he revealed on Thursday (May 11) that he has found someone else to take the helm.
The SpaceX founder tweeted: "Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!" He added that his role within the company will transition to "exec chair and CTO, overseeing product, software and sysops".
In a later tweet, he clarified: "The commitment to open source transparency and accepting a wide range of viewpoints remains unchanged," in response to a comment from political commentator Alex Lorusso - known on the platform as Alx - that free speech remains a "top priority" for the billionaire "regardless of who the next" CEO is.
Funnily enough, the news comes after the entrepreneur took to the platform on December 18 to ask users to determine the future leadership structure of the company.
He shared out a poll with the question: "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll," and after 24 hours it was revealed that 57.5 percent voted for the billionaire to bounce while 42.5% actually wanted him to remain as CEO.
The tech mogul published another tweet a couple of days later, seemingly confirming that he will step down from the role as soon as he finds someone suitable to take over.
"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams," he wrote.
According to the BBC, Tesla shares increased after the announcement as the entrepreneur has been accused by shareholders of abandoning his duties at the popular automotive company after his takeover of the social media platform.
"We ultimately view this as a major step forward with Musk finally reading the room that has been around this Twitter nightmare," Dan Ives from the investment firm Wedbush Securities said, per the outlet.
"Trying to balance Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX as CEOs [is] an impossible task that needed to change," Ives added.
The identity of the new Twitter CEO has not been disclosed yet.
us2 min(s) read
Published 12:21 01 Nov 2022 GMT
Elon Musk has made another major move in his Twitter takeover.
The billionaire has reportedly dissolved the social media platform's board and crowned himself as "sole director" of the company.
Per The Independent, a new SEC filing shows that all previous members of the board were removed from their roles last week on Thursday (October 27).
It had already been reported that Musk fired a large swathe of Twitter's top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.
However, the new information reveals that he also let go of nine directors - including board chairman Bret Taylor - within days of purchasing the company for $44 billion.
Sacking Twitter's board is just one of many changes the Tesla boss has already begun implementing. The SpaceX founder has been using his own Twitter account to drop hints as to what he has in store for the platform.
Over the weekend, he revealed that the process by which users gain a 'verified' blue tick was being rethought. "The whole verification process is being revamped right now," he wrote.
Musk also hinted earlier this year that he might reinstate blocked users like former President Donald Trump. The billionaire announced that if his bid to buy Twitter was successful he would "reverse the permanent ban" against Trump's account.
"Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts… I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump," Musk said at the time, per CNBC.
However, it looks like all of Musk's changes and promises aren't pleasing everybody on Twitter. Many famous faces are fleeing the platform, announcing that they aren't willing to stick around and see what he has in store.
Grey's Anatomy screenwriter Shonda Rhimes bid farewell to Twitter on Saturday (October 29), writing: "Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye."
This Is Us producer Ken Olin followed suit, tweeting: "I’m out of here. No judgement."
"Let’s keep the faith. Let’s protect our democracy. Let’s try to be kinder. Let’s try to save the planet," Olin added.
world2 min(s) read
Published 15:58 28 Oct 2022 GMT
Kanye West's Twitter account appears to have been unblocked after free-speech advocate Elon Musk took over the social media platform.
Rapper West was suspended from Twitter earlier this month after posting comments that many people deemed antisemitic.
However, mere hours after Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of the platform and fired its top executives, it looks like West is back online.
Though West is still yet to tweet anything since his ban was lifted, the 'Stronger' artist's old tweets are once again visible to read.
If Musk is behind the reinstatement of West's account, then this is just the latest in a string of controversial moves by the Tesla boss since he finalized his deal to purchase Twitter.
According to a report by Sky News, the Space X founder began his leadership by reportedly firing top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.
Musk claims the top executives misled him over the number of spam accounts on Twitter. It has also been reported that Agrawal and Segal were in the company's San Francisco head office when the deal closed - and that they were escorted out of the building.
Meanwhile, newly crowned Twitter boss Musk celebrated his takeover fittingly with a tweet. "The bird is free," he wrote to his 110.5 million followers.
He also changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" and marked his location as "Twitter HQ".
As for West, social media platforms aren't the only ones to take action against him after his problematic social media activity.
On Tuesday (October 25), Adidas announced via a statement on its website that the company was ending its partnership with the hip-hop star and dubbed his comments: "unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous".
The sportswear giant said: "Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."
world3 min(s) read
Published 16:45 03 Nov 2022 GMT
Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, celebrities have been announcing that they're ditching the social media platform.
Meanwhile, it looks like it isn't just famous faces who are opting to quit Twitter now that the Tesla boss is in charge.
According to Google search engine data, searches for how to leave the platform have gone up by 500 percent since Musk took charge last week. Per Mail Online, experts at security firm VPNOverview established that global searches for 'How to delete Twitter' surged by 500 percent from October 24 to October 31.
Meanwhile, searches for "boycott Twitter" were up by 4,800 percent between October 26 and November 2, per Google Trends results.
Deleting Twitter is a pretty straightforward process. All users need do is head to their privacy settings, tap account, and then hit the 'deactivate' button.
Musk has not been shy about implementing big changes at Twitter since purchasing the company for $44 billion.
As well as reportedly firing several of the company's top executives, the Space X Founder has also dissolved Twitter's board and named himself the "sole director".
Per The Independent, a new SEC filing shows Musk let go of nine directors - including board chairman Bret Taylor and CEO Parag Agrawal - within days of completing his takeover.
Musk has also been using his own Twitter account to drop hints as to what he has in store for the platform.
Earlier this week, he revealed that the platform's verification stamp - or 'blue tick' - would now cost $8 a month.
"Twitter's current lords [and] peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls***. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," he tweeted.
Musk also hinted earlier this year that he might reinstate blocked users like former President Donald Trump. The billionaire announced that if his bid to buy Twitter was successful he would "reverse the permanent ban" against Trump's account.
"Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts… I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump," Musk said at the time, per CNBC.
Despite this, Musk appeared to reassure users earlier this week that all "de-platformed" users would be vetted by a "content moderation council" before being reinstated.
"Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks," Musk wrote.
He added: "Twitter's content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence."
entertainment news3 min(s) read
Published 07:50 09 Jul 2022 GMT
Elon Musk has withdrawn his $44 billion offer to purchase Twitter.
As reported by BBC News, the 51-year-old Tesla CEO has pulled of the deal to "buy 100% of Twitter", alleging multiple breaches of the agreement between the two parties.
In documents addressed to the social media company, per The Guardian, Musk's lawyers write: "Mr Musk is terminating the merger agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr Musk relied when entering into the merger agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect."
It comes after Musk accused the platform of lying about the number of spam/bot accounts currently active on the site. Last month, the billionaire tweeted: "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."
However, simply backing out of the deal could be a costly decision for Musk.
Per the 95-page acquisition agreement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk could now have to prove that Twitter breached their original deal in order to avoid paying a $1 billion (£830m) break-up fee.
On Friday, BBC News reports that Twitter is not backing down from the deal, with the company's chair of the board Bret Taylor saying in a tweet: "The Twitter board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement."
It is now believed that Twitter will pursue legal action in order to enforce the agreement.
Musk originally made the eye-watering offer back in April - shortly after he took out a $2.89 billion stake in the company.
At the time, he said in a letter to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor: "Since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company."
The billionaire repeatedly touted that he believed Twitter has "extraordinary potential", and that he would be the one to "unlock it."
Many believed that Musk running Twitter would result in the platform being more accepting of what users could post.
For example, over the last few months, Musk stated that he disagreed with Donald Trump's Twitter ban following the January 6 Capitol riots, saying: "I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake."
Sharing his thoughts while speaking at the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit, Musk added: "It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice." He also stated that he would "reverse" Trump's ban if he took charge of the company.
Musk repeatedly shared his stance on "free speech", writing in his initial offer: "I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy."
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