Musk Takes Over Twitter, Fires CEO
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal is among executives planning to depart as Elon Musk completes his $44 billion deal to take over the social network.
The world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk has finally completed his $44 billion deal to take over Twitter, according to several reports Thursday evening, and quickly went to work rebuilding the company to his vision, firing executives like CEO Parag Agrawal—this is what may change on the platform, at the company and for Musk and his other ventures, Forbes reported.
Musk and Twitter had a court-imposed Friday deadline to either close the acquisition or face a trial that could have resulted in a judge forcing him to buy Twitter.
Musk seemingly confirmed the deal would go through Wednesday when he changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” and shared a video of him at the company’s headquarters, and the New York Stock Exchange suspended Twitter trading for Friday in anticipation of the deal closing.
Twitter accepted Musk’s unsolicited bid for the company in April, valuing the company at $54.20 per share, about a 30% premium.
In July, Musk formally attempted to back out of the deal, claiming the company knowingly misled him about the presence of bots on the site, prompting Twitter to file a lawsuit in Delaware’s Chancery Court to force through the acquisition.
Musk told Twitter October 3 he would move forward with the deal at the original terms, avoiding the Delaware trial originally slated to begin October 17.
A Bloomberg report last Thursday about the Twitter deal facing a possible national security review due to Musk’s friendliness with Russia briefly spooked investors on the likelihood of the deal going through, though the White House denies any such review is underway.
“The $44 billion price tag for Twitter will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals,” Ives said in a Thursday note to clients, estimating a $25 billion true market value for Twitter.
Twitter stock traded as low as $32 this summer as doubts about the deal ever closing peaked. Investors betting on the deal going through make out like bandits, including billionaire Carl Icahn, who the Wall Street Journal reports stands to profit as much as $250 million after buying up more than $500 million in Twitter shares at about $35 this summer.
It is estimated that Musk to be worth $221.5 billion, making him the wealthiest person on the planet by $62 billion. Musk’s fortune has tumbled more than $100 billion this year as Tesla’s stock crashes from its pandemic peak.
