Elon Musk has reportedly fired top executives of Twitter after the completion of the $44 billion takeover.
The sacked executives include CEO Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, the chief financial officer, and Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety.
The social media network’s co-founder Biz Stone thanked Agrawal, Segal and Gadde for their “collective contribution” to the business.
It finally ends the long-running battle that saw Twitter go to court to hold the billionaire to the terms of a takeover deal that he had tried to escape.
Musk paid a visit to the company’s San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday, carrying a sink and visiting with staff. He has said he is purchasingthe company “to try to help humanity”.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is 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 said in a tweet earlier on Thursday.
Thursday’s late night shakeup comes ahead of a Friday deadline to complete the purchase of the company, and will give the world’s richest man control of an influential social media platform with more than 230 million users.
Twitter now enters a new chapter, with questions hanging over what Musk plans to do with a platform that plays an outsized role in the political and media landscape due to its following among journalists, commentators, celebrities and politicians.
