Elon Musk has completed the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, making him the world’s richest person and giving him control of one of the most important social media sites, claims a source familiar with the deal.
Two people with knowledge of the decision said that Musk fired two more employees, including CEO Parag Agrawal. Twitter decided not to answer.
The closing of the purchase removes the ambiguity that has enveloped Twitter’s business, employees, and stockholders for most of the year. After deciding to buy the company in April, Musk spent months trying to back out of the deal, first voicing concerns about the number of bots on the site and later accusations made by a company whistleblower.
According to the rumors, the chief executive Parag Agrawal, the chief financial officer Ned Segal, and the head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde were all fired. One of the people claimed that Sean Edgett, the firm’s general counsel, had also been fired. The company’s top executives hurriedly led out of the San Francisco headquarters.
On Thursday, Musk wrote a message intended to reassure advertisers that social messaging services wouldn’t devolve into “a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
“The reason I acquired Twitter is that 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 said in the message. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into the far-right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
