Elon Musk Dissolves Twitter’s Board of Directors

Business, Social Media, Technology

Following the completion of his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform and the dissolution of its corporate board, Elon Musk has been appointed as Twitter’s sole director, according to paperwork submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.

According to the records, the “consummation of the merger” took place on October 27. At that time, “Mr. Musk became the only director of Twitter,” and the whole board, including CEO Parag Agrawal, was fired.

Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said he meant to take Twitter off the public market when he made his initial buyout offer in April. After that, he said, less public disclosures would be necessary.

Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk in a Delaware court after the erratic billionaire attempted to back out of the agreement.

But as a trial date in October drew near, Musk resurrected the deal in early October, finally finalizing the on-again, off-again takeover last week at $US54.20 per share.

He fired the company’s senior executives as soon as he took over Twitter office, including Mr. Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde, who had decided to permanently suspend former President Donald Trump from the platform.

Prior to the takeover, Musk had criticized the move to bar Mr. Trump in the public sphere. Musk told the Financial Times in May, “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a significant portion of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

“Blocking Trump from Twitter did not silence Trump. It is morally incorrect and downright stupid since it will make it more prominent among the right.

Musk reportedly collaborated with Tesla software experts over the weekend to examine the inner workings of the social media juggernaut after altering his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” and planned significant layoffs.

Musk plans to “do away with permanent restrictions on users because he doesn’t believe in everlasting prohibitions,” citing a person “close to the situation”.

He announced the creation of a content moderation council in an effort to assuage the fears of advertisers, Twitter’s primary source of income, by promising them that the site will not turn into a “free-for-all hellscape”.

Despite widespread rumors that Mr. Trump might return to his 89 million Twitter followers, the former President stated on Friday that he would continue to use Truth Social, his alternative social media network that debuted at the beginning of this year.

Trump told Fox News, “I’m staying on Truth.” “I like it better, and I enjoy how it functions. Although I like Elon, I’m sticking with Truth.

In the meantime, news broke on Sunday that Twitter would begin charging users $19.99 USD every month to maintain their blue verification checkmarks. Musk tweeted on Sunday that “the entire authentication procedure is being rebuilt right now.”

According to The Verge, the business intends to increase the price of its optional premium subscription called Twitter Blue from $US4.99 per month to $19.99 per month and add verification as part of the package.

After the new Twitter Blue launches, verified users who have already signed up will have 90 days to do so or they will lose their checkmarks, according to the tech website. According to the SEC filing, the new Musk-led company created as a result of the merger agreement has also offered to buy back all of Twitter’s outstanding bonds.

Musk, the richest man in the world, used a combination of his own money, money from other investment organizations, and loans from banks that will need to be repaid to finance the enormous acquisition.

Another Twitter document submitted to the SEC indicates that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal has risen to the position of second-largest shareholder. The businessman eventually contributed the almost 35 million shares he already had after originally rejecting Musk’s offer as being too low in comparison to Twitter’s “intrinsic value.”

Al-Waleed sent an announcement about the rollover of his shares on Twitter last Friday and signed it, “Dear friend ‘Chief Twit’ @elonmusk.”

With a hand-shaking emoji, he added, “Together all the way.”