Elon Musk has disbanded Twitter’s board of directors, making him the “sole director” of social media — as he plans to “fire a quarter of its staff.”
A securities deposit filed Monday revealed that all previous board members are no longer directors “under the terms of the merger agreement.”
Tesla’s CEO, who has named himself “Chief Twit,” fired four executives shortly after the acquisition, who had been credited millions under the merger agreement.
Former CEO Parag Agrawal was set to receive $60 million alone, but Musk fired them all “for reason” — though it’s unclear what his reasons for the move are.
The layoffs may invalidate the payout agreement, but the executives are “deliberating” their next steps.
Agrawal and chairman Bret Taylor are no longer on the board after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition.
Martha Lane Fox, Omid Kordestani and David Rosenblatt have also been ousted from their positions following the SpaceX chief’s overhaul.
Securities filing filed Monday reveals that all previous board members are no longer directors “in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement”
Elon Musk plans to let a quarter of the workforce at social media giant Twitter go in his first round of layoffs after acquiring the company through a multi-billion dollar acquisition last week.
It comes as the new Twitter CEO has reportedly issued an ultimatum to the social media platform’s engineers, instructing them to renew Twitter’s verification system in less than a fortnight or he would be fired.
Celebrity attorney Alex Spiro, a longtime legal representative of Musk, led the talks over the job cuts, according to the Washington Post.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss immediately fired the social media company’s CEO, chief financial officer, head of the legal department and general counsel when he took over the injunction on Thursday.
The first round of layoffs will affect nearly every department and are expected to specifically affect sales, product, engineering, legal and trust and safety in the coming days, the Post’s source said.
Twitter had more than 7,000 employees at the end of 2021, according to a regulatory filing, and a quarter of its workforce is nearly 2,000 employees.
Musk denied a New York Times report about firing Twitter employees on a date earlier than November 1 — that is tomorrow — to avoid stock markets due on the day.
Elon Musk was pictured on Twitter offices with a sink
Musk previously insinuated that he viewed the New York Times as a fake news channel
After engineers, Twitter’s highest-paid employees are in sales, with some earning more than $300,000.
Musk also denied claims he will fire employees before they receive their compensation in the form of stock grants on Nov. 1.
He responded to the claims of ProPublica’s deputy editor-in-chief, Eric Umansky, by saying “this is not true.”
According to a report from The Verge, Musk plans to launch a pay-for-play authentication system that will charge verified users $20 per month.
The problem is that engineers have until November 7 to launch the plan or they will be fired. Workers were not notified of the project until October 30.
The Verge report says the price of the verification is subject to change. The price also covers other features as yet unspecified.
Musk is pictured with Twitter employees in the office on the day of the takeover
Commenting on ProPublica’s Eric Umansky tweeting the Times story, Musk simply wrote: ‘This is not true’
David Sacks, a longtime ally of Musk, is reportedly working with Tesla CEO as a ‘staff software engineer’
Since Musk first offered to buy Twitter, the world’s richest man has made it clear that he intended to shake things up at the social media giant.
Hours before the The Verge report came out, Musk tweeted, “The entire verification process is now being refreshed.”
Earlier, Casey Newton of tech website Platformer reported that Twitter tended to ask verified users to pay for the privilege.
DailyMail.com has asked Twitter to comment on this story.
Both David Sacks and Jason Calacanis appeared in a business directory this weekend and are said to have the titles of ‘staff software engineer’.
Musk’s official title is CEO, though he publicly referred to himself as ‘Chief Twit’
New Twitter CEO Elon Musk shared a link to a now-deleted article suggesting that Paul Pelosi left a gay bar early Friday morning with David DePape before reportedly being attacked with a hammer.
Musk’s official title is CEO, though he publicly referred to himself as “Chief Twit.”
On Sunday, Musk targeted Twitter’s defense attorneys, claiming they “deliberately hid evidence from the courts” — referencing his legal bid to stop the takeover.
Sriram Krishnan, another longtime Musk employee, also tweeted that he helped the deal by investing $400 million from crypto firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Musk further targeted the New York Post by tweeting a screenshot of a NYTimes.com headline accusing him of posting a link to a fake story about the attack on Paul Pelosi.
The headline read: “Elon Musk tweets a link to a site known to publish fake news.”
He joked, “This is fake — I *didn’t* tweet a link to the New York Times.”
Musk previously deleted a tweet suggesting that Paul Pelosi’s attacker was a gay prostitute he met on a drunken night out.