Tesla chief executive and mega-billionaire Elon Musk has officially taken owner microblogging platform Twitter after consummating a whopping $44 billion deal on Thursday, thrusting the platform into a new era. Immediately after acquiring Twitter, Musk has shown the door to the key top brass at the company, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.
Musk's second move has been to assuage the fears of advertisers since many feared his radical ideas are seen in contrast with how the platform is being run for years and thus could hurt their revenues. In a rather long note, contrary to his usual style of writing small cryptic one-liners on Twitter, Musk said Twitter will aspire to be the most respected advertising platform in the world, which will strengthen brands and grow their enterprise.
"To everyone who has partnered with us, I thank you. Let us build something extraordinary together." Musk said he "very much" believes that "advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed but is right for you".
To make this a reality, says Musk, it is essential to show Twitter users ads that are as relevant as possible to their needs. "Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!" he asserted.
As part of the deal, Twitter's shareholders will be paid the previously agreed $54.20 apiece. Since Musk reannounced his plans to acquire Twitter earlier this month, the stock is on an upward rally, with shares rising 24.16% in one month. The stock has risen to $53.70 from the lows of $32.65 on July 11.
The company will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and will operate as a private firm. The takeover of Twitter by the world's richest person concluded after a months-long legal battle, which saw many flip-flops by Musk, forcing Twitter to move court against him. He slammed Twitter for having weak leadership and targeted it on many occasions for its inability to reveal the actual number of bot or spam accounts operating on the platform.
In a final showdown before he sealed the $44 billion deal after so many hiccups, Musk had entered Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, carrying a porcelain sink on Wednesday. True to his humorous and witty character, Musk posted a video on Twitter, in which he was seen chuckling and carrying a sink as he entered the Twitter office. The post captioned "Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!".
Explaining the reason behind buying Twitter, Musk in his latest post said he didn't buy Twitter to make more money. "I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognising failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility".
He also made his stance clear on the freedom of speech on the popular microblogging platform. "Twitter obviously can't become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature".
Musk said he bought Twitter because it's important to the future of civilisation "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 also warned there's currently a "great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left-wing echo chambers", which generate more hate and divide society. He also slammed the media for fulling and catering to polarised extremes, in pursuit of clicks. "They believe this is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost".
On Thursday, Musk met employees at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. In a picture shared on his timeline, the billionaire is seen chatting with Twitter employees in a coffee bar. He also changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit", and his location to Twitter's San Francisco headquarters.
