Elon Musk finalizes $44 billion Twitter buyout

Elon Musk, the business magnate, and investor have finalized his $44bn (£38.1bn) buyout of Twitter and in his first move, he fired top executives of the social media platform.

Musk tweeted ‘‘the bird is freed’’ in an apparent reference to the closing of the transaction.

Elon Musk has accused the leaders of Twitter of misleading him on the number of spam accounts and now has terminated Twitter’s Chief Executive Officer, Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer, Ned Segal, and Legal Affairs & Policy Chief, Vijaya Gadde. Vijaya Gadde had earlier decided to permanently suspend Donald Trump from Twitter.

Following the completion of the acquisition, Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Segal were escorted out of the Twitter Headquarters, the Reuters news agency reported.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone thanked Agrawal, Segal, and Ms. Gadde for their collective contribution to the company.

The social network company’s shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange’s website.

Musk in his tweet said the reason for him to acquire Twitter is that it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square. He further stated that he didn’t acquire Twitter to make more money, rather he claims he purchased Twitter to help ‘‘humanity.’’

Earlier this week Mr. Musk tweeted a video of himself walking into Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco carrying a sink with the caption stating, “let that sink in!”

Musk also changed his Twitter profile which read “Chief Twit”.

Elon Musk’s roadmap to acquisition

Elon Musk made early investments in Twitter in January, where he set out making frequent purchases of shares so that by the halfway point of March, he had amassed a 5% stake in the firm.

In April, he was confirmed as ‘‘Twitter’s largest shareholder’’, and by the end of the month, a transaction was definitively attained to acquire the business for $44bn.

Many analysts contended that the price Elon Musk is now paying for the company is too high because of the decline in the values of many tech stocks and Twitter’s battle to attract users and flourish.

In July, Musk said that he no longer wished to acquire the firm. Twitter nevertheless contended that the billionaire was legally obligated to the acquisition and in time filed a lawsuit to hold him to the agreement.

In early October, Elon Musk revived his buyout plans for the networking platform on the condition that legal proceedings were paused.

Advancements in the future

Following the acquisition, Musk has assured to drive it into a less-restrictive platform for free speech, a shift he has stated is “essential to a functioning democracy.”

There has been no statement so far from Twitter about its new management team, however, Mr. Musk will administer the company.

The initial phase of his tenure will emphasize talent and Musk is likely to look to his other businesses, Tesla, and SpaceX, to seek out specialists who may support Twitter reversing its fortunes, the people said.

Former US President Donald Trump continues to be banned from Twitter – a ruling Mr. Musk has in the past said was “foolish” and that he would reverse.

However, Mr. Trump has asserted that he wouldn’t be reactivating his account – preferring as an alternative to post on his platform ‘‘Truth Social.’’

Musk has announced that his strategies for Twitter consist of ‘‘X’’, the app for everything.

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