The billionaire is said to have appointed himself chief executive officer, dismissed senior management and immediately began reshaping strategy. Musk, 51, who also leads Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, may eventually cede the CEO role in the longer term, a person familiar with the matter said. Twitter representatives declined to comment.
The acquisition puts the world’s richest man in charge of Twitter after six months of public and legal wrangling. Changing the leadership was among Musk’s first moves. Departures include Parag Agrawal, CEO; Vijaya Gadde, head of legal, policy and trust; chief financial Officer Ned Segal, who joined Twitter in 2017; and Sean Edgett, who has been general counsel at Twitter since 2012.
Musk also intends to do away with permanent bans on users.
Disruption Expected
This is because he doesn’t believe in lifelong prohibitions, the person cited above said. That means people previously booted off the platform may be allowed to return, a category that would include former president Donald Trump, the person said. It’s unclear however if Trump would be allowed back on Twitter in the near term.
The buyout marks the end of nine years of public trading. Twitter debuted with a bang on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 but failed to match the rocket ride achieved by some other tech heavyweights.
The change in leadership will bring immediate disruption to Twitter’s operations, in part because many of Musk’s ideas on how to change the company are at odds with how it has been run for years. He’s said he wants to ensure “free speech” on the social network.
Meanwhile on Friday, EU’s internal markets commissioner Thierry Breton took to Twitter to send a warning to the social-media platform’s new owner. “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” Breton said in response to Musk’s Tweet: “the bird is freed.” Earlier this year, Breton had also reminded Musk that his free-speech focus on Twitter would be limited by the EU’s own content-moderation laws.
