The bird is free: How to the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter played out

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New
Delhi,
Oct
28:
Billionaire
Elon
Musk
is
now
the
new
owner
of
Twitter
and
has
fired
the
social
media
company’s
Indian-origin
CEO
Parag
Agrawal
and
top
legal
executive
Vijaya
Gadde,
according
to
a
media
report.

The
New
York
Times
said
in
a
report
that
Musk
closed
the
$44-billion
deal
to
buy
Twitter
on
Thursday.

Citing
people
with
knowledge
of
the
situation,
the
report
said
that
Musk
“has
started
cleaning
house
at
Twitter
with
the
firings
of
at
least
four
top
executives”.

The
Twitter
executives
who
were
fired
include
Agrawal,
Gadde,
Chief
Financial
Officer
Ned
Segal
and
General
Counsel
Sean
Edgett.

The
bird
is
freed:
Elon
Musk’s
first
tweet
after
the
Twitter
takeover

“At
least
one
of
the
executives
who
was
fired
was
escorted
out
of
Twitter’s
office,”
the
report
said,
according
to
news
agency
PTI.

Agrawal
was
appointed
Twitter
CEO
in
November
last
year
after
the
social
media
site’s
co-founder
Jack
Dorsey
had
stepped
down.

An
IIT
Bombay
and
Stanford
alumnus,
Agrawal
had
joined
Twitter
over
a
decade
ago
when
there
were
fewer
than
1,000
employees
at
the
company.

“Agrawal,
who
was
appointed
Twitter’s
chief
executive
last
year,
had
clashed”
with
Musk
“publicly
and
privately
in
recent
months
about
the
takeover,”
the
NYT
report
said.

Musk
had
also
“singled
out”
Gadde,
“criticising
her
for
her
role
in
content
moderation
decisions
at
the
company”,
it
added.

As
the
Twitter
account
of
former
US
President
Donald
Trump
was
permanently
suspended
in
January
last
year,
Hyderabad-born
Gadde
was
at
the
forefront
of
this
dramatic
decision
undertaken
within
days
of
the
attempted
insurrection
by
pro-Trump
supporters
at
the
US
Capitol.

Musk
had
arrived
at
the
company’s
headquarters
in
San
Francisco
on
Wednesday
and
had
been
meeting
with
engineers
and
advertising
executives.

From
Smash
Brahmanical
Patriarchy
to
terminating
Trump:
Vijaya
Gadde
fired
from
million
Twitter
job

The
51-year-old
has
promised
to
transform
Twitter
by
loosening
the
service’s
content
moderation
rules,
making
its
algorithm
more
transparent
and
nurturing
subscription
businesses,
as
well
as
laying
off
employees.

Musk
at
one
point
tried
to
back
out
of
the
deal,
but
recommitted
to
it
this
month
as
he
faced
legal
challenges
for
trying
to
withdraw.