Business

Elon Musk expected to serve as interim Twitter CEO post $44 billion takeover

Musk has detailed the plans in presentations to possible funders for the takeover

May 6, 2022

Elon Musk may take over as CEO of Twitter for a few months

Nearly a week after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took control of microblogging major Twitter for a whopping $44 billion, uncertainties loomed over the incumbent management including its CEO Parag Agrawal.

As per media reported on Thursday, Elon Musk is likely to take over as a temporary CEO of Twitter for a few months when the takeover deal is complete.

A fresh US SEC filing on Thursday also revealed that Musk has secured nearly $7.14 billion in equity commitments from friends and other investors to acquire Twitter.

Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who had initially opposed the buyout, also agreed to roll his $1.89 billion stakes into the deal rather than cashing out, a regulatory filing showed.

Musk received $1 billion from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and $5 million from Honeycomb Asset Management, which invested in his SpaceX company, the report mentioned.

Twitter stock jumped nearly 3 percent after the latest news, while Tesla’s shares went down more than 4 percent.

Twitter employees last week grilled CEO Parag Agrawal about their uncertain future once Musk takes over. They demanded answers from Agrawal as to how the company is planning to handle an “anticipated mass exodus prompted by Musk”.

Agrawal replied that he believes “the future Twitter organization will continue to care about its impact on the world and its customers”.

Meanwhile, Twitter under Agrawal fears that Musk’s ‘free speech’ agenda can hurt its $4.5 billion a year advertising business.

Nearly 26 activist organizations and NGOs have signed a letter to Twitter advertisers, asking them to boycott the platform if Musk makes content moderation changes.

Advertisers are having nightmares as free speech can hamper their prospects on the platform as their brand’s name may appear alongside hate speech and abusive or dangerous content without moderation.

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