SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk attends a joint news conference with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert (not pictured) at SpaceX Starbase, in Brownsville, Texas, US, August 25, 2022.
Adris Latif | Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk now. are in charge of TwitterCNBC’s David Fabre informed of on Thursday.
Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Sehgal have left the company’s San Francisco headquarters and will not return.
Musk had until Friday to complete the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter or face a court battle with the company.
In April, Twitter accepted Musk’s offer to buy the social media service and take it private. However, just a few months later, Musk began raising doubts about his intentions to buy Twitter, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.
When Musk said he was terminating the deal, Twitter sued the billionaire, alleging that Musk “refused to honor his obligations to Twitter and its shareholders because of the deal he signed”. Signed that no longer serves his personal interests.”
In the coming months, Twitter and Musk will trade barbs through their attorneys as both sides go to Delaware’s Court of Chancery to determine the company’s fate and whether that future will end up in the hands of the Tesla chief.
Earlier in October, Musk had a change of heart and said he wanted to pursue his acquisition of Twitter at an original price of $54.20 per share if the social messaging service dropped its litigation. Distrusting Musk’s intent, Twitter’s lawyers said the Tesla CEO’s “proposal is an invitation to further mischief and delay.”
A Delaware Chancery Court judge eventually ruled that Musk had until October 28 to head to the Twitter deal or trial.
On Thursday, the billionaire also wrote a message aimed at reassuring advertisers that social messaging services will not evolve into a “free hellscape for all” where anything can be said without consequences!
“The reason I acquired Twitter is that it is important for the future of civilization to have a common digital town square where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy way, without resorting to violence,” Musk said in the message. Is.” “There is a great danger at present that social media will split into far-right and far-left echo chambers that generate more hatred and divide our society.”
Musk arrived at Twitter HQ earlier this week carrying a sink, and documented the incident on Twitter, saying, “Entering Twitter HQ – let him drown!”
The Tesla chief also updated his Twitter description to a “chief tweet.”
This story is in development, please check back for updates.
