Twitter employees respond to new owner Elon Musk’s annihilation of top execs — on Twitter
It’s official: billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now the owner of Twitter. For months, it appeared as though the $44 billion deal wouldn’t go through. But on Thursday, October 27, multiple media outlets reported that Musk had officially acquired Twitter — and it didn’t take him long to begin firing major figures at the company. Musk, according to Newsweek, has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde.
Agrawal and Segal, according to Reuters, were escorted out of Twitter’s Bay Area headquarters when the deal was finalized. Some Twitter employees have been quick to respond to the firings — on Twitter.
On October 27, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone tweeted, “Thank you to @paraga, @vijaya, and @nedsegal for the collective contribution to Twitter. Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each!”
Karl Robillard, Twitter’s head of social impact, posted, “There are no words to describe the gratitude and respect I feel for @nedsegal, @vijaya, and @paraga. They are, simply put, the best of the best.”
Twitter’s Haraldur Thorleifsson tweeted, “Reporters asking me what’s happening and I’m just no, you tell me what’s happening.” And Lara Cohen, global head of partners for Twitter, wrote, “I love my colleagues so much.”
Newsweek’s Giulia Carbonaro reports, “The firing of Twitter's top executives follows reports that Musk would fire 75 percent of staff after taking over the company to pay down the company's debt. Both Twitter and Musk later denied the claims, saying that the job cuts won't be as severe.”
With Musk now owning Twitter, many reporters believe that the Tesla CEO is likely to restore former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account — which was shut down following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. Gadde was part of the team that decided to ban Trump from the platform on January 8, 2021.
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