Elon Musk Takes Control Of Twitter: ‘The Bird Is Freed’

Elon Musk's newest job title is "Chief Twit," after officially acquiring Twitter. Per Variety, an SEC filing Friday (October 28) by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was a formal notification that Twitter’s stock was delisted to the public. That means Musk’s $44 billion acquisition closed at the original agreed-on price of $54.20 per share.

Musk, 51, promptly fired at least four top Twitter executives as the first order of business Thursday evening, according to Business Insider. They include CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Twitter's head of legal, policy and trust, and safety, Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sean Edgett. The terminated senior execs (minus Edgett) are walking away with a big payout, with Agrawal to receive $57.36 million; Segal with $44.47 million; and Gadde with $20.01 million, according to Twitter’s 2022 proxy statement. Musk then installed himself as CEO. He has said that he intends to overturn Twitter’s permanent bans. This likely includes the former President, Donald Trump. Musk has previously called Twitter’s lifetime ban on Trump a “morally bad decision” that he would reverse.

Musk has indicated he wants Twitter to become a more-expansive communications and entertainment app than it is today. He has spoken of wanting to ensure “free speech” on the platform, previously accusing Twitter of censoring conservative viewpoints and harboring a left-wing bias.

In a letter addressed to Twitter advertisers Thursday morning, he said his motivation for buying the site was not for monetary gain, but rather for humanity. He called it 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." He concludes that Twitter will not become a "free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!"

“The bird is freed,” Musk tweeted late Thursday night.

Elon Musk struck a deal on Monday to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion, according to The New York Times. Twitter agreed to sell itself to Mr. Musk for $54.20 a share, a 38 percent premium over the company’s share price this month before he revealed he was the firm’s single largest shareholder. Musk has said that he plans to take the company private.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement. He said he wanted “to make Twitter better than ever.”

Before the deal was closed, Musk tweeted, "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means." It's noteworthy that Musk has a history of trying to shut down, silence or punish anyone who goes public with criticism of a his projects or practices (Fortune has a lengthy report on that). Musk has also blocked people on Twitter, including 19-year old Jack Sweeny, who created a Twitter bot that tracks Musk’s Gulfstream private jet and posts real-time updates of its location from publicly available data.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1518623997054918657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1518623997054918657%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxbusiness.com%2Ftechnology%2Felon-musk-takes-to-twitter-to-explain-what-free-speech-means

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