Elon Musk lays off top executives after securing $44 billion Twitter deal

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive, Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of social media giant Twitter on Thursday.

The deal which was first announced in April, and hit multiple roadblocks along the way came to a close before the court deadline of Friday, 28th October.

In a report by the Economic Times, the completion of the takeover saw the billionaire firing off the top executives including Parag Agrawal, the chief executive as Musk plans to take on the position.

Agrawal was fired along with other major executives including Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy and trust; Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal; and Sean Edgett, general counsel at Twitter since 2012. Edgett was escorted out of the building.

What does Elon's take-over hold for Twitter and its users?

It was reported that Musk had plans to lay off 75% of the 7500 twitter employees with the completion of his takeover in an earlier report. However, Elon made a public retraction stating he has no plans of laying off employees in a visit to the company's headquarters on Wednesday.

The billionaire has also shared his idea of making Twitter an everything app also referred to as "Super App", and likened it to the likes of WeChat which is predominantly used in Asia. This "everything" app will let users not only send messages but also make payments, shop online or hail a taxi. It will also allow content creators to sell premium subscriptions to reduce reliance on ads.

He has also mentioned that he intends to do away with permanent bans on users because he doesn’t believe in lifelong prohibitions, meaning people previously booted off the platform may be allowed to return, a category that would include former president Donald Trump. It is, however, unclear if Trump would be allowed back on Twitter in the near term.

He has also made his plan to allow less restrictive content moderation widely known, saying he wants to ensure “free speech” on the social network. Although, some fear this threatens to undo years of Twitter’s efforts to reduce bullying and abuse on the platform.

Musk has also discussed the logic for Twitter integrating digital payments into its service in the past. With the billionaire having been very vocal about his stance on crypto and blockchain markets, his potential crypto plans for Twitter still remain unclear.

With Elon Musk already making his mark on his newly acquired Twitter, changing his profile name on the platform to “Chief Twit”, and his plans to restructure the company into a social media giant with ten times valuation already underway, what does the future hold for the platform?