IT'S FIREDAY FRIDAY
Musk starts cutting jobs at Twitter as staff seen leaving with boxes
, Bloomberg News TODAY
Elon Musk has started to cut employees at Twitter Inc.
People who identified themselves as Twitter employees were seen leaving the company’s San Francisco headquarters carrying boxes of belongings. Internally, Slack channels lit up with suspicion that the departing people were enacting a hoax, and were not in fact laid off, people familiar with the matter said.
Still, Musk has been cutting -- and started right after the deal closed Thursday with several executives, including the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, people familiar with the matter have said.
The company has scheduled an employee meeting for next Wednesday, but some staff did not receive invitations, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.
, Bloomberg News TODAY
Elon Musk has started to cut employees at Twitter Inc.
People who identified themselves as Twitter employees were seen leaving the company’s San Francisco headquarters carrying boxes of belongings. Internally, Slack channels lit up with suspicion that the departing people were enacting a hoax, and were not in fact laid off, people familiar with the matter said.
Still, Musk has been cutting -- and started right after the deal closed Thursday with several executives, including the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, people familiar with the matter have said.
The company has scheduled an employee meeting for next Wednesday, but some staff did not receive invitations, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.
ROFLMAO
Elon Musk wants Twitter to 'help humanity'
In an unusually long, platitude-laden tweet, the world's richest person on Thursday said he wanted to buy Twitter to "help humanity."
Elon Musk, whose $44 billion deal appears to have closed, even admitted that "failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility."
Avoiding a 'free-for-all hellscape'
"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, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets, wrote in a long message aimed at advertisers.
"There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society,'' he added.
He said he doesn't want Twitter to become a "free-for-all hellscape.''
Musk said Twitter should be "warm and welcoming to all'' and enable users to choose the experience they want to have.
On Wednesday Musk visited Twitter's San Francisco headquarters for meetings with executives. He also changed his bio on Twitter to "Chief Twit."
Musk's bid to gain the trust of ad buyers
The tweet from the self-described "free speech absolutist" was aimed at addressing some concerns among advertisers over his likely takeover.
"You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility,'' Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School to the Associated Press.
Twitter's chief source of revenue is advertising. Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter's revenue in the second quarter.
Though Musk previously said he wanted to move away from the advertising model, on Thursday he wrote he wants Twitter to be "the most respected advertising platform."
Musk is funding a large portion of the deal through debt. One of Musk's biggest obstacles to closing the deal was keeping in place the financing pledged roughly six months ago.
lo/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters)
AlterNet - TODAY
By Alex Henderson
Elon Musk in May 2022© provided by AlterNet
It’s official: billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now the owner of Twitter. For months, it appeared as though the $44 billion deal wouldn’t go through. But on Thursday, October 27, multiple media outlets reported that Musk had officially acquired Twitter — and it didn’t take him long to begin firing major figures at the company. Musk, according to Newsweek, has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde.
Agrawal and Segal, according to Reuters, were escorted out of Twitter’s Bay Area headquarters when the deal was finalized. Some Twitter employees have been quick to respond to the firings — on Twitter.
On October 27, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone tweeted, “Thank you to @paraga, @vijaya, and @nedsegal for the collective contribution to Twitter. Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each!”
Karl Robillard, Twitter’s head of social impact, posted, “There are no words to describe the gratitude and respect I feel for @nedsegal, @vijaya, and @paraga. They are, simply put, the best of the best.”
Twitter’s Haraldur Thorleifsson tweeted, “Reporters asking me what’s happening and I’m just no, you tell me what’s happening.” And Lara Cohen, global head of partners for Twitter, wrote, “I love my colleagues so much.”
Newsweek’s Giulia Carbonaro reports, “The firing of Twitter's top executives follows reports that Musk would fire 75 percent of staff after taking over the company to pay down the company's debt. Both Twitter and Musk later denied the claims, saying that the job cuts won't be as severe.”
With Musk now owning Twitter, many reporters believe that the Tesla CEO is likely to restore former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account — which was shut down following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. Gadde was part of the team that decided to ban Trump from the platform on January 8, 2021.
Parag Agrawal ‘escorted out’ of Twitter headquarters after Musk takeover: Report
Elon Musk had accused the top leadership at Twitter of misleading him and investors over the number of fake accounts on the social media platform.
After Elon Musk completed his $44 billion purchase deal of Twitter late on Thursday, its top executives were fired and escorted out of the social media company's San Francisco headquarters, according to several media reports. The Twitter executives who were fired include CEO Parag Agrawal, legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett. (Also Read | Trump's Twitter account to be restored after Elon Musk takeover?)
Musk had accused the top leadership at Twitter of misleading him and investors over the number of fake accounts on the social media platform.
“Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out,” reported Reuters quoting sources.
“At least one of the executives who was fired was escorted out of Twitter’s office,” a New York Times report said.
Twitter, Musk and the executives are yet to issue an official statement on the firings.
Musk, however, tweeted “The bird is freed” in an obvious reference to the completion of $44 billion deal.
Agrawal had clashed with Musk in recent months about the takeover amid a remarkable saga, full of twists and turns, that sowed doubt over whether the tech billionaire would complete the deal. Musk complained publicly that he believed Twitter's spam accounts were significantly higher than the company's estimate. As per Twitter's regulatory filings, the company said the spam accounts on the platform were less than 5% of its monetizable daily active users.
Musk gave notice to Twitter on July 8 that he was terminating their deal on the grounds that Twitter misled him about the bots and did not cooperate with him. Four days later, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone thanked Agrawal, Segal and Gadde for their "massive contribution" to the business.
"Thank you to @paraga, @vijaya , and @nedsegal for the collective contribution to Twitter. Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each!" Stone tweeted.
(With inputs from Reuters, PTI)
Parag Agrawal likely to receive
$42 million following exit
from Twitter: Report
Agrawal's run as CEO was quickly disrupted by Musk’s arrival as a major shareholder with Twitter.
Billionaire Elon Musk on Friday after completing his $44 billion deal to take over Twitter fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. However, the top executive will not be leaving empty-handed, said reports. As a part of the deal, Agrawal will vest 100% of his unvested equity awards, reported Bloomberg.
According to research firm Equilar, this means that he will make an estimated $42 million, reported Reuters. The estimate includes a year's worth of Parag's base salary plus accelerated vesting of all equity awards. In 2021, Agrawal's total compensation was $30.4 million, when he was the chief technology officer, according to Twitter's proxy. As the CEO, Agrawal's salary was reported to be $1 million annually.
Also read: You're free to tweet: Messages reveal Elon Musk- Parag Agrawal fall out
Parag Agrawal took over the Twitter CEO role in November last year after co-founder Jack Dorsey unexpectedly resigned. Agrawal's run as CEO was quickly disrupted by Musk’s arrival as a major shareholder and increasingly vocal antagonist of its current leadership. The two had not been on good terms and none of it was hidden from the public eye.
After Musk's involvement, Parag Agrawal was unlikely to keep his job.
In one of Musk's filings about the deal, he said that he “does not have confidence in management”.
Several text messages during the lawsuit showed that Musk and Agrawal had a contentious exchange early on during the deal process after Musk asked his followers whether Twitter was “dying". On April 9, Agarwal had written to Musk: “You are free to tweet ‘is Twitter dying?’ but it’s my responsibility to tell you that it’s not helping me make Twitter better in the current context.” Musk fired back: “What did you get done this week?”
Also read: 'Chief Twit' Elon Musk visits Twitter HQ as takeover deadline looms | Watch
Elon Musk took over Twitter on Friday after a bitter legal battle with the social media platform - days after Musk had pulled the plug on the buyout deal in July - claiming that he was misled by Twitter concerning the number of bot accounts on its platform.
On October 17, Musk and Twitter were expected in a face-off in Delaware's Court of Chancery - wherein the social media company was set to seek an order directing Musk to close the deal for $44 billion. However, earlier this month, Musk proposed to proceed with his original $44 billion bid - calling for an end to the lawsuit by Twitter.
(With inputs from agencies)
Elon Musks Shows Up At Twitter HQ With A Sink Ahead Of Takeover Deadline
Donald Trump supporters are reacting with glee to news that Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has fired the lawyer that nixed the former president's account on the social media platform.
After taking control of Twitter on Thursday, Musk swiftly fired company CEO Parag Agrawal and other executives, reports the Associated Press, including Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde, who made the call in January 2021 to permanently suspend Trump's account for inciting violence. Conservatives, who've complained that Twitter's content moderation is uneven, were receptive to Musk's ownership of the platform. Now, they're cheering Musk's early decisions.
"I was suspended 8 times for absolutely no reason," Libs of TikTok, a Twitter account famous for mocking liberals, tweeted. "I have zero sympathy for Vijaya Gadde- chief of account banning and censorship."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you Elon Musk!" pro-Trump TEAM USA reacted to the firing in a tweet.
Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza tweeted that Agarwal and Gadde's firing was "karma" for what he said was their use of the platform to quash their opponents.
The world's wealthiest man who heads electric-car maker Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX, Musk agreed to buy Twitter in April. He promised improvements to the digital town square that included more relaxed content restrictions to facilitate free speech.
"By 'free speech', I simply mean that which matches the law," Musk said in a tweet in April. "I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law."
In the run-up to the finalization of the $44 billion acquisition, Musk criticized Gadde for her previous decisions clamping down on political content. Specifically, Musk took issue with Twitter restricting a New York Post article about alleged influence peddling of President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, during the 2020 election.
"He's certainly off to a flying start," Lee Harris, who describes himself as a conservative, tweeted in response to Musk's takeover. "Looks like he means business."
Harris reacted to Gadde's firing with the tears of joy emoji and the word "wonderful."
Political commentator Tim Pool, who has accused the platform of unfairly censoring conservatives, tweeted that he "Cracked a bottle of Louis XIII to celebrate Elon buying twitter."
"maybe vijaya can learn to code, i think Parag already knows how," he added.
READ MORE
"Chief Twit" Elon Musk meeting "cool people" at Twitter as deadline nears
But Gadde had sympathizers.
Twitter user V pointed out that Trump was kicked off other social media platforms as well, suggesting Gadde was unfairly singled out for making the call.
Olivia Troye, who served as an adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, praised Gadde in a tweet: "I just want to thank her & her team for their commitment to trying to make a difference."
Newsweek has reached out to Twitter and Gadde for comment.
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