Chief Twit. That’s Elon Musk’s new title on his Twitter profile.
The Tesla billionaire completed a $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal a day before the deadline set by a Delaware court and avoided a costly legal faceoff against Twitter shareholders keen on making sure he made good on his lucrative offer to buy them out and turn the company private.
Musk announced his purchase with a simple tweet, “the bird is freed.” As of Friday afternoon, the tweet had recieved more than 2 million likes.
But some analysts say Musk overpaid, and they are not surprised he tried to back out.
Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives said the deal was not favorable to Musk.
“The $44 billion price tag for Twitter will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A (mergers and acquisitions) deals on the Street, in our opinion,” Ives wrote in a Thursday note to clients, according to a Fortune Magazine report. “Musk buying Twitter remains a major head-scratcher.”
And among the first public act as owner, Musk cleaned house.
The Chief Twit fired several of Twitter’s top executives. He axed CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Head of Legal, Policy, and Vijaya Gadde, whom many blamed for banning former President Donald Trump but also credited with improving the platform’s user experience. Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett, was also shown the door.
The firings have created room for pranksters posing with carrying cardboard boxes in front of Twitter headquarters as if they have been fired.
Some media houses fell for the prank, and Musk appeared to have fun some good fun with it on his newly-acquired toy.
“Ligma Johnson had it coming,” Musk tweeted and attached a photo of a story identifying the two prankers carrying cardboard boxes as Twitter data engineers Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson.
The caption of the photo posted by CNBC tech reporter Dierdre Bosa read “Musk allegedly fired the entire team of Twitter data engineers as ‘laid off’ employees Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson are pictured walking out of the San Francisco office on Friday afternoon.”
TMZ revealed the hoax telling readers Ligma, is in fact, a dirty joke meme.
While rumors of layoffs at Twitter persist, so far only the execs, who are well compensated have been laid off.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
In a letter to Twitter advertisers, Musk explained his motives for buying the company, painting himself as motivated by promoting the freedom of speech and taming right-wing and left-wing political extremes on the platform.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner without resorting to violence,” Musk said. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
But those thinking Twitter will become a platform without any controls are mistaken.
“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk said in a message to advertisers. “In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all.”
He argued that the experience on Twitter should be similar to that of video game or movie enthusiasts who have options ranging from child-friendly to mature.
Musk still needs to provide clear criteria for the kind of speech he’d allow on the platform.
For example, it’s unclear whether Musk would bring former President Donald Trump back to the platform, even though he has expressed support for bringing him back. Twitter banned Trump after they blamed him for using the platform to incite his followers to raid the US Capitol on January 6, 2020, over unfounded claims that President Joe Biden stole the election from him.
Conservatives have celebrated Musk’s moves to buy Twitter, but liberals have threatened to walk out if Trump returns to the platform.
After the ban, Trump formed Truth Social to get his message out, but the platform has yet to gain traction because his supporters dominate it, and he’s essentially preaching to the choir.
With the mid-term elections looming and Trump under legal siege on various fronts, bringing him back to Twitter would be an October surprise game-changer that could upend the polls.
He blamed the mainstream media for catering to the political extremes in pursuit of clicks and money.
Read the full story here from Tech Crunch, who have followed the story at every turn.
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022