Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter: Management Team Fired

With the Twitter acquisition, 'Chief Twit' Elon Musk aims to create an 'open space for humanity'.

With the takeover of Twitter, 'Chief Twit' Elon Musk aims to create a 'public space for humanity'. The bird is, according to Musk, thus 'freed'.

Party alert at Mar-a-Lago. With Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, there will probably be corks popping by the former US president Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from the platform for inciting hate. Because, according to reports from media like the New York Times, the deal is done. Elon Musk has transferred $44 billion to Twitter and completed his portion of the deal at the last moment.

Twitter is now owned by the world’s richest man. An official statement from corporate circles is still pending. The New York Times, however, cites "three people familiar with the situation." Moreover, Musk cheerfully strode into the company’s headquarters, and he had already published a statement explaining his reasons for the takeover. On his first day at Twitter, Musk didn’t bring a cake, but a sink.

CEO fired

With the Twitter acquisition, in the long run, probably no department will stay the same. The new boss put his new course as 'Liberal' into practice: at least four members of the management team, including CEO Parag Agrawal, were fired immediately. According to the media, chief counsel Sean Edgett was even escorted outside.

Last-minute takeover

The multi-billionaire waited until the last moment to take over the company. In April, Musk had already agreed to acquire Twitter for $54.20 per share. As inflation in the US rose, the stock briefly dipped below this level—Musk wanted out. As justification, the Tesla boss pointed to claims that he had been misled about the number of fake accounts.

Twitter’s management didn’t sit idly by and sued the CEO. The Delaware Chancery Court had given the South African until Friday, October 28 to complete his portion of the deal. That has now happened.

There will likely be a lot of change at Twitter with the takeover. Musk is pushing for a much broader free-speech environment than the company’s policy had allowed. The most notable example: In May, Musk announced he would reinstate Donald Trump, who had been ousted from the platform for supporting the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Musk himself explains his takeover in a statement posted on Twitter—of course. He writes that his decision is justified by the need to create a 'meeting place for humanity.' He says he wants to end the formation of left- and right-leaning echo chambers that are increasingly separating people and driving more division and hate.

"I did it to help humanity I love," Musk writes in the statement.

The Doge army rejoices

But the takeover will likely bring some crypto-sector innovations as well. Elon Musk is a fan of Dogecoin (DOGE), a memecoin with no real utility. In anticipation of integration, the coin’s price rose with a Shiba Inu in the logo in the last few days like never before. In the last week alone, it was up about 25%.

That crypto integration at Twitter is more than wishful thinking, with reports that they’re already working on a native Twitter wallet. "Twitter is working on a wallet prototype that supports crypto deposits and withdrawals," software developer Jane Manchun Wong tweeted.

NFT integration deepens

With Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter is rolling out a new feature. In collaboration with four NFT marketplaces, including Solana’s Magic Eden and Rarible, selected Twitter users will soon be able to view, buy, and sell NFTs. The package is called NFT Tweet Tiles and is currently in testing.