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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly added another feather to his cap. According to sources, Musk has acquired Twitter, a popular social media platform, in a late night move on Thursday. Elon Musk, who owns world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla as well as space agency SpaceX, is now the new owner of Twitter. According to media reports, his first action after taking over Twitter was to fire the Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal and legal executive Vijaya Gadde. Musk had earlier offered to buy out Twitter at a cost of $44 billion. However, it is not confirmed yet if the deal has been officially closed.
A report by The New York Times said that Musk has closed the deal and 'has started cleaning house at Twitter with the firings of at least four top executives'. Besides Agrawal and Gadde, he also reportedly removed Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett. The report said, “At least one of the executives who was fired was escorted out of Twitter’s office." However, it is not known who the person was.
Earlier on Thursday, Elon Musk wrote a long message to advertisers on Twitter. He shared the message on Twitter, which read, “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society."
Elon Musk is now expected to speak to Twitter employees on Friday if the deal has been officially finalised. The Tesla CEO had visited the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco earlier this week to meet engineers and advertising executives. Musk plans to change how Twitter functions by changing its content moderation rules, increase Twitter's subscriber base and revenue and laying off employees. Though he wanted to back off from the deal until a few weeks ago, he changed his stance after he faced legal challenges.