By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
While ad revenue has been slumping in recent times, Elon Musk said he is committed to making the social media firm healthy again with a number of monetization features.
After about 6 months of haggling, the acquisition of social media giant Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) has now been completed by Elon Musk, at the original bid price of $44 billion. The acquisition now means a whole lot of things for both the company, its employees, and its users alike, heralding an era where free speech might actually be supported by a mainstream tech firm.
The need to moderate free speech accounts for one of the reasons why Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter in the first place, as Elon Musk has taken a good jab at the frantic pace at which the company bans people, including former President Donald Trump. Twitter under Musk will reinstate some of the banned accounts, a move that many feared will erode the years the company spent trying to moderate its content from extremist views.
One of the first moves Elon Musk made when he completed the deal was to fire Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Parag Agrawal, a move that seems not surprising to those with knowledge of the matter considering both men have not been on very good terms since the move to snap up the company was announced earlier in the year.
Besides Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy, and trust; Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, who joined Twitter in 2017; and Sean Edgett, who has been general counsel at Twitter since 2012 were also fired with sources claiming Edgett was escorted out of the building.
With Musk set to address Twitter employees on Friday, the fears that he might lay off as much as 75% or 7,500 of the firm’s workers remain top on the horizon. However, he has assured us that such a move is not on his agenda, but that the policy of working from home forever will no longer hold true for everyone. According to the world’s richest man, only exceptional staff will be allowed to work from home and others have to resume at the offices.
Twitter Acquisition to Change Its Revenue Sources
With Elon Musk now in charge of the company, an indication has been dropped on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that the shares of the company will be suspended for trading on Friday. Musk has reiterated his stance to take the company private at first with reconsideration to go public again in 3 – 5 years.
While ad revenue has been slumping in recent times, Elon Musk said he is committed to making the social media firm healthy again with a number of monetization features set to unveil in the short term. To advertisers, Musk said in a note earlier this week that they will have nothing to fear as he does not intend to make the platform a “Free-for-all Hellscape.”
Many are optimistic about the takeover of Twitter, and per reports, Musk’s lawyers had sent papers to equity partners like Binance Exchange and Sequoia Capital to fulfill the prior commitments. The shares of the company were last seen trading at $53.86 in the After Hours session, up by 65% from a four-month low hit in July.