The first three days: Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter

This week, Elon Musk finally completed the long-awaited deal to take over the social media platform Twitter for a massive $44 million, making waves through the company in just his first 36 hours on the job.

The new Twitter CEO made good on his deal to acquire the company at a whopping $52.40 per share on Wednesday after arriving at Twitter headquarters carrying a porcelain sink, Tweeting a video of his arrival and captioning it, “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”

Later the same day, Musk Tweeted, “the bird is freed,” indicating the acquisition had been completed.

On Thursday morning he began implementing changes as the new CEO of Twitter, firing three top executives within the first few hours.

Musk’s ousting of former CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal and former Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde was immediate, but will cost the new CEO about $187 million, according to a special report by CNN.

The three are entitled to the money from their shares being sold to Musk, as well as “Golden Parachute” plans that guarantee them a years’ salary as well as health care for a year and the funds they receive in accelerated vesting of stock.

Musk is rumored to be planning an enormous layoff of up to fifty percent of the company, according to an insider who spoke to the Washington Post. 

Musk announced further impending changes on Thursday, Tweeting that the company would be forming a “content moderation council” but has not yet implemented any changes or made any “major content decisions” and does not plan to do so “before that council convenes.”

Musk also invited engineers from one of his other companies, Tesla, to examine Twitter’s code, reportedly because he wanted a team he trusted. There is still no word on whether Musk will allow banned users like former president Donald Trump back onto the platform.