Elon Musk Closes Twitter Deal, Fires Top Execs

Elon Musk's $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter closed Thursday night, and sources tell the Washington Post and other outlets that to kick things off, Musk fired a few of the social network's top executives. According to the sources, it was CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety who were fired, while Sean Edgett, general counsel, was also "pushed out." The execs were said to have been "hastily" made to exit the premises. A companywide town hall is reportedly planned for Friday.

Sources say that while many Twitter employees were not happy at the idea of Musk taking over, his surprise visit to the company's offices Wednesday turned the mood more hopeful for some; then the firings of the top executives soured the mood once again. As CNN reports, there's quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding Musk's plans; he has reportedly discussed plans to cut 75% of the workforce and has been open with his criticism of the way the site was previously run, specifically with regard to content moderation. Among other things, he has promised to reinstate Donald Trump's account and return "free speech" to the platform. (He also assured advertisers, however, that it won't become a "free-for-all hellscape.")