Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter
Elon Musk has completed his takeover of Twitter, despite a protracted legal battle with the previous owners and threats from a number of celebrities to leave the social-media platform if he proceeded. When it was first announced that Musk had made a bid for the site six months ago, celebrities were among the many people who expressed outrage and protested that the Tesla CEO and billionaire would control and run the platform. Apart from the firings, Musk hasn’t made any major decisions as Twitter’s CEO, but adding the platform to his already hectic schedule as CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX will keep the billionaire very busy. Musk has had Twitter employees worried about their job security ever since he announced his intention to buy the social media company. On October 20, documents revealed Musk’s intention to lay off 75% of Twitter’s workforce, which alarmed many people.
Are People Deleting Twitter?
According to the company, hundreds of thousands of Twitter users deactivated their accounts in the days following Elon Musk’s takeover deal, as prominent users such as Katy Perry and Barack Obama lost followers. According to data from the analytics site Social Blade, some of the social network’s most prominent progressive voices have seen their public follower counts decline since Monday, while some rightwing Twitter users have gained followers.
Perry, the site’s third most popular user, lost 7,000 followers in a few days, while Obama, whose 132 million followers make the former US president’s account the most popular on the site, lost 5,000 followers just on Tuesday. Michelle Obama’s Twitter followers have dropped by nearly 20,000. According to Social Blade data, Taylor Swift’s Twitter account also experienced one of the largest drops, losing 15,000 followers in 48 hours.
Reference: theguardian
Twitter Inc. Top Employees Leaving
According to people familiar with the situation, Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal is among the executives set to leave as Elon Musk completes his $44 billion takeover of the social network. According to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public, also leaving are Vijaya Gadde, the 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.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a comment request. When co-founder Jack Dorsey unexpectedly resigned in November, Agrawal took over as CEO. Agrawal had been with Twitter for nearly a decade, most recently as chief technology officer, but his tenure as CEO was quickly derailed by Musk’s arrival as a major shareholder and increasingly vocal critic of the company’s current leadership.
Reference: Themint
Elon Musk In Feud With Employees Of Twitter
When Musk arrived, it was clear that Agrawal was unlikely to keep his job. “I don’t have confidence in management,” Musk stated in an early filing about the deal, and the two executives traded public jabs. In May, Elon Musk responded to Agrawal’s Twitter thread defending the company’s user metrics by tweeting a poop emoji. Text messages revealed in the lawsuit show that the two men had a heated exchange early in the deal process after Musk asked his followers if Twitter was “dying.”
Agrawal confronted him via text. “You are free to tweet ‘is twitter dying?’ or anything else about Twitter,” he wrote on April 9, “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?” And then: “I’m not joining the board, this is a waste of time.”
Reference: Themint
Image source: Pintrest
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