Musk has taken over Twitter
What has been looming over the last few weeks is now semi-official: on Thursday, billionaire Elon Reeve Musk bought the short message service Twitter for 44 billion US dollars.
"The bird is set free" twittered Elon Musk last night. With this, he unofficially confirms his acquisition of Twitter for 44 billion US dollars - an official confirmation is still pending. With his tweet, the new owner also announces his intention to make Twitter a platform with an absolute right to free expression.
According to the news agency Reuters, Musk fired several bosses after the takeover. Among them were CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal. As Bloomberg reports, Musk plans to take over as chief executive for now. In addition, lifetime bars imposed by the intelligence community are to be lifted. This would also allow former US President Donald Trump to tweet again.
Further, things are likely to get tight for many of the company's employees. Although Musk is unlikely to lay off 75 percent of the 7500-strong workforce, there are likely to be layoffs. Musk will also have to look for new sources of revenue for the struggling company.
This ends a saga that began in January when Musk took a large stake in Twitter stock. After that, Musk at one point wanted to take over the company outright, and then again he did not. This resulted in a legal dispute that should now be over with the takeover.
Titelbild: Twitter Account von Elon Musk
From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.