California [US], November 1 (ANI): Tesla CEO Elon Musk who closed the USD 44 billion twitter acquisition deal last week and took control of the micro-blogging platform dissolved the board on Monday and was named the sole director of Twitter, the social media platform said in a securities filing on Monday, The Hill reported.
Out of the many changes that Musk made to the social media platform, the dissolution of the board of directors is a major step as Twitter’s board members which included Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li, and Mimi Alemayehou will now no longer serve on the board, according to the company’s statement.
Elon Musk became the sole director of the company “in accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement,” the company told the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Hill reported. After closing the expected Twitter deal, the Tesla CEO purged the top executives of the company which Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal left the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
Regarding the changes in content moderation policies, Musk wrote in a tweet that “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
As per media reports, Elon Musk is also planning to start charging USD 20 per month for users to have a verified account. The Tesla CEO also instilled suspicion amongst social media users when he tweeted on his Twitter “Let the good times roll” shortly after he acquired the social media platform and closed the deal.
Musk arrived at the Twitter headquarters earlier this week carrying a sink, and documented the event on Twitter, saying “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” and also updated his Twitter description to “Chief Twit.” He tweeted a video of him and described his visit as an experience that he was trying to “sink in” as the Tesla CEO has until the end of the week to either close the Twitter deal or face a trial.
In April, Twitter accepted Musk’s proposal to buy and take the social media service private. However, Musk soon began sowing doubt about his intentions to follow through with the agreement, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.
In July, in a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk who had long been showing his interest to buy Twitter terminated the deal. The Tesla CEO did so by alleging that Twitter violated their mutual purchase agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform.
The previous week, Musk confirmed that he will move forward with the Twitter buyout at the originally agreed price of USD 54.20 per share. However, the Twitter deal legal proceedings had been put on hold by a judge overseeing the dispute until October 28. (ANI)
Twitter bosses entitled to USD 122 million in ‘golden parachute’ payouts
New Delhi [India], November 1 (ANI): Twitter’s top executives, including Parag Agrawal and Vijaya Gadde will be entitled to “golden parachute” payouts worth more than USD 122 million after being fired by the company’s new owner, Elon Musk fired.
A golden parachute is essentially a contract that entitles top executives of a company to substantial benefits in case they lose their jobs following a merger, takeover or acquisition. This measure is also known as a ‘poison pill’ since it can act as a safeguard against hostile takeovers. In August, US-based corporate research firm Equilar had estimated that ex-CEO Paras Agrawal alone could receive a USD 42 million payout if he is terminated after the takeover. The debt-funded deal has become a costly exercise even for Musk, the world’s richest man.
Legal costs in particular are likely to have run into the tens of millions of dollars after Musk tried to terminate the deal with Twitter in July, arguing that the company had misled him over the number of bot accounts on the social network.
Agrawal is likely to receive the largest payout, worth USD 57.4 million, while Segal and Gedde are entitled to USD 44.5 million and USD 20 million respectively, according to company filings. The three executives also hold a cumulative 1.2 million shares, which are likely to be bought by Musk as is standard in any takeover. Those payments would be worth USD 8.4 million to Agrawal, USD 22 m to Segal and USD 34.8 million to Gadde.
After closing the USD 44 billion acquisition deal, Elon Musk has started to reform the policies of the micro-blogging platform and is wasting no time remodeling it by cutting off employees, and introducing plans for a council to determine content decisions, The Hill reported. In one of the first few changes, he purged the top executives of the company as soon as he closed the expected deal in which Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal left the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
Elon Musk to remodel Twitter, plans to lay off employees
California [US], October 30 (ANI): After closing the USD 44 billion acquisition deal on Thursday, Elon Musk has started to reform the policies of the micro-blogging platform and is wasting no time remodeling it by cutting off employees, and introducing plans for a council to determine content decisions, The Hill reported.
Despite doubting his intentions multiple times to follow through with the USD 44 billion Twitter acquisition deal, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now in charge of Twitter. Regarding the changes in content moderation policies, Musk wrote in a tweet that “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
In one of the first few changes, he purged the top executives of the company as soon as he closed the expected deal in which Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal left the company’s San Francisco headquarters. He also hinted that more changes to the status of accounts banned under previous leadership are to come in the early days of his leadership, according to The Hill.
The Tesla CEO also instilled suspicion amongst social media users when he tweeted on his Twitter “Let the good times roll” shortly after he acquired the social media platform and closed the deal. Musk arrived at the Twitter headquarters earlier this week carrying a sink, and documented the event on Twitter, saying “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” and also updated his Twitter description to “Chief Twit.” (ANI)
