Elon Musk fired several top executives at Twitter on Thursday as the billionaire closed his takeover of the social media giant, according to multiple reports.
Musk ousted Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and the head of legal policy, trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde, The Washington Post reported. The newspaper added that the trio were escorted from the Twitter office.
The New York Times added that company general counsel Sean Edgett was also fired.
Musk completed the takeover Thursday, capping the $44 billion (£38 billion) deal and ending the saga a day before a Friday deadline to do so. He had previously attempted to back out of the deal after the company’s share prices plummeted, entering a fierce legal battle as Twitter sued to force him to complete the sale. But he recommitted to the purchase this month.
There were signs Musk had resigned himself to the purchase and was finalising the deal. He visited Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday (bearing a sink) and changed the bio for his personal Twitter account to “Chief Twit”.
Musk has promised to transform Twitter, and he’s forecasted large layoffs that may approach 75% of employees. He wrote to advertisers this week attempting to soothe any concerns, saying he didn’t want the platform to become a “free-for-all hellscape”.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation 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 statement. “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.”