Snippet: Elon Musk Officially Owns Twitter ☇

Amanda Silberling and Taylor Hatmaker for TechCrunch:

It’s for real this time. After months of legal drama, bad memes, and will-they-or-won’t-they-chaos to put your favorite rom-com to shame, Elon Musk has closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. Musk sealed the deal Thursday night, taking Twitter private and ousting a handful of top executives — CEO Parag Agrawal included — in the process. […]

Musk reportedly cleaned house on Thursday, firing CFO Ned Segal, Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett right out of the gate. Though it’s still an aggressive and abrupt day one move, Agrawal was inevitable given his well-documented clashes and a failed virtual meeting with Musk. It’s also no surprise that Gadde was among the first to go, in spite of being a well-respected figure in the company. Musk previously singled the top executive out with accusations of “left wing bias” over her role in policy decision making at Twitter, driving a wave of racist hate and harassment her way.

Part of me hopes that since Musk likes Twitter, it will be run from a place that users will appreciate. On the other hand, cleaning house on day one and throwing around phrases like “free speech” and “left wing bias” is a bit concerning.