Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has finished buying Twitter for $44 billion, despite calls from lawmakers and activists for Twitter to rein in hate speech.
The social networking company disclosed the purchase had concluded the day before in a brief filing on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning.
The firm’s stock has been suspended and will delist on November 8, bringing to a conclusion a turbulent ordeal that started when the Tesla CEO initially revealed his intentions to take the tech company private in April.
In a post to his 110 million followers, Musk announced the purchase and said, in reference to the company’s corporate image, that “the bird is freed,” adding, “let the good times roll.”
There have been rumours that Musk will temporarily assume the position of CEO at Twitter. He reportedly fired numerous senior leaders soon after taking over, including the CEO, Parag Agrawal, the CFO, Ned Segal, and the director of legal policy, trust, and safety, Vijaya Gadde.
On Friday, Segal posted a tweet stating that he had “concluded 5 years @twitter.” Agrawal, Gadde, and Segal were honoured on Friday by Martha Lane Fox, the co-founder of lastminute.com and a member of the Twitter board, who thanked them for “leading with remarkable honesty and care.”
Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” has declared his intention to reinstate banned users, including Donald Trump.
Donald Trump reacted to Musk’s takeover on his own outlet, Truth Social, on Friday, saying he is “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands”. “Twitter must now work hard to rid itself of all the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly,” he wrote. “I LOVE TRUTH!”
In a Tweet on Friday, Musk appeared to make a reference to the speculation about whether Trump will rejoin the platform, saying that it would be creating “a content moderation committee with vastly diverse opinions” to deal with such issues.
“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” he wrote.
