After months of drama, Mr Elon Musk has now taken charge of Twitter, signifying his $44 billion acquisition of the company.
With the acquisition, Twitter CEO, Mr Parag Agrawal, and finance chief, Mr Ned Segal, have been relieved of their duties, while Mr Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety, was also fired.
Yesterday, the billionaire tweeted, “the bird is freed,” in an apparent reference to the takeover being completed.
This would bring an end to a tumultuous seven-month tussle that began in April when Twitter accepted Musk’s proposal to buy the social media service and take it private.
However, the Tesla CEO soon began sowing doubt about his intentions to follow through with the agreement, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.
When Mr Musk said he was terminating the deal, Twitter sued the billionaire, alleging he “refuses to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
In the ensuing months, Twitter and Musk would trade barbs via their attorneys as the two parties were slated to head to Delaware’s Court of Chancery to determine the fate of the company and whether it would end up in the Tesla chief’s hands.
Earlier in October, he changed his heart and said he wanted to pursue his acquisition of Twitter at the original price of $54.20 a share if the social messaging service dropped its litigation.
A Delaware Chancery Court judge eventually ruled that Mr Musk had until October 28 to cement the Twitter deal or head to trial.
It is still unclear how Mr Musk will finance the deal. Earlier this year, He secured some debt financing from a number of investment banks. He also got the backing of some high-profile investors, including venture capital firms and technology CEOs.
