Elon Musk takes control of Twitter; CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO, censorship czar, and other top executives fired
Daniel Levi
Posted On October 27, 2022
Yesterday, Elon Musk posted a video of himself entering Twitter HQ with a bathroom sink and a message: “Let that sink in!” It now appears that it’s beginning to “sink in” for some Twitter employees.
Just minutes after The Financial Times reported that Elon Musk has closed the $44 billion acquisition deal, The New York Times now reports that, according to sources who declined to be identified, four Twitter executives have been fired from the company.
“Some of Twitter’s top executives were fired on Thursday as Mr. Musk completes his takeover of the social media company,” The Times reported.
The four executives fired include Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, Ned Segal, the chief financial officer, Sean Edgett, the general counsel, and Vijaya Gadde, the top legal and policy executive, (or censorship czar).
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) October 28, 2022
As you may recall back in May when we wrote about Musk’s plans after he takes over the company. Back then, Musk said he planned to”crack down on Twitter’s executive and board pay, monetize tweets in a push to slash costs.”One of the executives mentioned back then was Twitter’s “chief censor officer Vijaya Gadde, who earned $17 million last year as Twitter’s top legal counsel.
Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports that Twitter employees were locked out of the source code at noon today. Tesla engineers were also inside the Twitter office today to get the source code and dig into the system for Musk.
https://twitter.com/Rampage95_SGTG/status/1585790641635631109
As we reported last week, Musk planned to lay off nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers after the acquisition is complete. Musk told investors in his $44 billion takeover deal to buy the social giant “that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000.
The report has put Twitter employees in panic mode. In a draft open letter received by Times, unknown Twitter employees demanded that Musk commits to preserving Twitter’s current headcount if his takeover of the company goes through.
The letter goes on to demand that he does not discriminate against employees based on their political beliefs and that he commits to “fair” severance policies and more communication about working conditions. “We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,” the list of demands says
