TOP PIX: Tesla Owners Club Belgium, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
ELON Musk has completed his $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover of Twitter, according to an investor in the firm.
Twitter’s chief executive and finance boss have reportedly left with immediate effect.
It brings to a close a saga that saw Twitter going to court to hold the world’s richest man to the terms of a takeover deal that he had tried to escape.
Musk tweeted his interest in the platform was not about making money.
Twitter investor Ross Gerber, who is chief executive of Gerber Kawasaki Investments in California, confirmed to the BBC that the deal had been completed.
“I think the court pushed him over the line,” said Mr Gerber. “Quite frankly, this has sort of been a disaster from the beginning, of course, starting off very aggressively courting Twitter in a way that really forced Twitter to the table… then getting all upset and having a public spat over what to me was pretty well known issues.”
The company’s chief executive, Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and the firm’s top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, are no longer with the company, according to US media reports.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone thanked Mr Agrawal, Mr Segal and Ms Gadde for their “collective contribution” to the business.
The social media platform’s shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange’s website.
Musk said he bought the social media platform to help humanity and he wanted “civilization to have a common digital town square”.
Earlier this week Musk tweeted a video of himself walking into Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco carrying a kitchen sink with the caption: “let that sink in!”
He also changed his Twitter profile to read “Chief Twit”.
Many analysts argued the price Mr Musk is now paying for the company is too high given the decline in the values of many tech stocks and Twitter’s struggle to attract users and grow.
On a recent earnings call, the Tesla founder said Twitter was “an asset that has just sort of languished for a long time, but has incredible potential, although obviously myself and the other investors are overpaying for Twitter right now”.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63402338
