Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, immediately fires CEO and other execs

A months-long saga that culminated in a lawsuit against Musk to force him to honor their merger agreement is over. The first thing Musk did was to fire executives.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk fired his chief executive and CFO after the deal closed. The general counsel Sean Edgett was also fired. It is not clear who will be the CEO.

Musk was attempting to get out of the merger contract. He challenged the then-Twitter CEO to a debate about their data. Musk was forced to complete the deal because of the court case. Musk criticized the approach of content moderation.

On the day of the deal, Musk visited the headquarters of the company. A Washington Post report stated that Musk told prospective investors in his deal to buy the company that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 percent of the company's workers. He told staff that he wouldn't be firing 75% of them.

Now that Musk has completed the deal, the company is going to be a private one. He defines free speech in a way that suggests he's willing to restrict it in any country that requires him to do so.

Hours before the acquisition was completed, Musk sent a message to advertisers assuring them that it wouldn't be a free-for-all hellscape.

Merger caps months of fighting

One day before the deadline, the deal was done. In March, Musk bought 9.2 percent of the company's stock. In order to join the board of directors, Musk had to stop buying more than 14.9% of the company's stock.

After pulling out of the deal, Musk began laying the groundwork to buy the company. He claimed to want to preserve free speech on the platform.

The poison pill made it difficult for anyone to buy more than 15% of the company's stock in a transaction that wasn't approved by the board. On April 25th, Musk signed a deal to buy the company for $44 billion, making him the richest person in the world.

Musk's second thoughts came fast. Musk said on May 13 that the deal to purchase the micro-messaging service is temporarily on hold while he waits for more information. The board said it would enforce the deal.

Less than 5 percent of its daily active users are fake, according to Musk's claims. He tried to end the merger agreement on July 8 because he claimed that they made false and misleading statements.