Twitter staff appear to be in for a roller coaster ride following the takeover of the company by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. If they keep their job, that is.
We already know that after gaining control of the company late last week in a deal worth $44 billion, Musk wasted little time in booting out Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and the company’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal.
A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission also reveals that Musk has fired the entire Twitter board, too, leaving him with the title of “sole director,” while a company directory seen by the Washington Post lists Musk as CEO.
The board that was dismissed by Musk included Agrawal, Bret Taylor, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li, and Mimi Alemayehou.
The dramatic move means that 51-year-old Musk now leads not only Twitter, but also Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company.
The Post’s report said Musk spent the weekend with his inner circle — including Alex Spiro, a well-known celebrity lawyer who has represented Musk for a number of years — and Twitter’s remaining senior executives discussing a further round of staff layoffs, which is expected to impact all departments at the company. Those present are also reported to have discussed how Twitter should approach the thorny issue of content moderation, with Musk known to be interested in easing it.
Talks also touched on whether to start charging people for the right to display Twitter’s blue verification check mark on their profiles. Reports on Sunday suggested Twitter could charge up to $20 a month for the mark, though how many users will actually be prepared to pay for it is impossible to say. An update on Twitter’s verification system is expected any day now.
Musk also tweeted a poll to his 112 million Twitter followers on Monday asking them if they’d like to see the return of short-form video platform Vine. Twitter operated the app from 2013 until 2016 when it decided to shutter the service, despite it having around 200 million active users. Around 70% responded to Musk’s poll saying they’d like to see Vine return.
Many changes appear to be coming to Twitter. But the precise nature of those changes is, for now, still unknown.
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