Elon Musk Gets Twitter For $44B Post Legal Battle, Fires Top Execs

Elon Musk's Twitter era has begun, and the first order of business was to fire the top execs, meaning CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal are now off the bird's roster.

The total cost in question has come to $44 billion, although no one is sure exactly how Musk plans to fund his latest shopping spree, even if it came under court-ordered duress. Twitter is certainly abuzz, especially after Musk's cryptic quote. Scroll down to find out the details.

Musk began to acquire Twitter shares earlier this year, according to securities filings, and then disclosed his stake in early April. He refuses the offered boars seat and instead offered to buy Twitter outright, to the tune of $54.20 per share, creating a shockwave in the tech and business world, and also among the 450 million Twitter users.

By the end of April, Musk and Twitter had turned to serious term-sheet talk with the SpaceX owner turning into a hostile takeover, from just an investor, in the blink of an eye.

Memes floated aplenty, with many saying Musk taking Twitter over would be the end of free speech on social media, while others felt it was the right thing to do.

Either way, despite serious negotiations, Musk suddenly decided to terminate the deal a few months later, citing Twitter's issues with bots as the crux of the problem. And yet, it was these bots that made Musk want to buy Twitter in the first place, as he spoke about the impending acquisition at a TED conference on April 14. At the time, Musk said, “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it is just really important that people have the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law."

Musk began to show a marked reticence in closing the Twitter deal in the months following April, alleging Twitter did not disclose the actual number of fake and spam accounts, as in the bots, while making the agreement.

On July 8, the lawyers representing Musk wrote a letter of intent to terminate the deal, and in a wild turn of events, Twitter sued the Tesla chief, alleging, he “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”

They weren't all that far off the mark, given that soon after the $54.20 per share deal was inked, and signed, the stock market tanked. Tech stocks were hit particularly hard and the $44B deal for Twitter became a tad too expensive, with Tesla stock also in a freefall.

Musk might have used the Twitter bot problem to wiggle out of the deal calling it "pervasive" but Twitter approached the Delaware Chancery Court to enforce the merger agreement. Since then, barns have been bandied between Twitter and Musk, with whistleblowers releasing termination letters and private text messages to the court and public.

Finally, on October 4, Musk shared a completely new reason, indicating he now wanted to complete the deal on Twitter. And so, on Twitter, Musk said: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”

And here's something he said yesterday as well, trying to put advertisers at ease:

Of course, he still has to rake up the actual money, so the Twitter battle isn't all that won yet.

Meanwhile, the platform still seems to be working, as per hilarious test tweets like this!

In the true theatrical style that we now know Musk for, he arrived at the Twitter headquarters earlier this week carrying a sink, as he covered the same for Twitter with tongue-in-cheek humor, writing: “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”

Since then, Musk also updated his Twitter description to “Chief Twit.”

The actual chiefs of Twitter are out already, with CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal exiting the company, with $39 million and $25 million payday deals. Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety was also fired although the details of his severance cheque are not known.

Musk felt Twitter was now free, and said so, on Twitter, of course:

The Twitterati seems a bit under shock, still, with one very apt comment: "Who would have ever thought that in the course of 6 years President Trump would defeat Hillary, POTUS would be banned from social media, Joe Biden would “get more votes than Obama”, the FBI would raid a former president’s private residence, & Elon Musk would buy Twitter?"