After months of waffling, lawsuits, verbal mudslinging and the near miss of a full blown trial, Musk now ownsTwitter.
Three people with knowledge of the situation said that Mr. Musk closed his deal to buy the service on Thursday night. The chief executive and chief financial officer were both fired on Thursday. Mr. Musk met with engineers and ad executives after arriving at the headquarters.
The closing of the deal follows months of drama and legal challenges as Mr. Musk changed his mind about buying the company Mr. Musk has said that he wants to make the social media platform a more freewheeling place for all types of commentary and that he would reverse the ban on Donald Trump from the service.
Political debates around the world could be affected by Mr. Musk's approach to speech on social media. Brazil's president will be elected in the next few days and American voters will go to the polls in November. Before Mr. Musk bought it, it said it wouldn't allow misleading claims about voting or the outcome of elections.
David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who worked with the United Nations on issues of free speech, said that there could be real world consequences to Mr. Musk's leadership. It is possible for world leaders to push to see how far they can go.
The acquisition has been celebrated by some Republicans, who have argued that they were silenced by the social media platform. According to researchers, the rules of the social networking site have been essential to fighting online hate speech and misinformation. Advertisers are concerned about allowing their brands to appear.
Colin Crowell, the former head of global public policy, left the company in 2019. The Wild West needs a sheriff to ensure the safety of citizens but also to improve the prospects for commerce.
New leadership, job cuts, and the pursuit of new ways to make money are all promised by Mr. Musk. It has had difficulty growing its advertising-based business and attracting new users. It was a sign that Mr. Musk intended to move quickly.
Mr. Musk won't have to reveal how it is performing every few months. Taking the company private will allow him to make changes to the service without being seen by the public.
Mr. Musk did not reply to the request for comment.
It was a win for the board. When Mr. Musk agreed to pay $54.20 a share for the company in April, he was criticized for accepting a price that was too low. The board wanted to force Mr. Musk to abide by the agreement after the deal price seemed to be a win for shareholders.
The spokesman did not reply to the request.
Two people with knowledge of the matter said that Parag Agrawal, the chief executive, and Sean Edgett, the general counsel, were among the executives who were fired. One of the executives who was fired was escorted out of the office.
Mr. Musk started accumulating shares in the company this year. In April, he struck the deal to buy the company for $44 billion and said he would make it easier for people to find and share information.
He said in April that he was looking forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlocked it.
He began questioning the deal. Mr. Musk accused the executives at the company of failing to accurately count the number of accounts that were fake. Mr. Musk responded to Parag by posting a poop symbol.
In July, Mr. Musk decided that he didn't want to own the platform. The acquisition was to be abandoned by him.
A lawsuit was filed against Mr. Musk to force him to fulfill the agreement. The company said Mr. Musk tried to back out of the deal because of the economic downturn. Mr. Musk agreed to give $33 billion of the deal.
The lawsuit was heard in Delaware Chancery Court. A five-day trial will be held in October.
Facing days of depositions and uncertainty, Mr. Musk reconsidered. He was trying to negotiate a discount on the price. The talks were not successful. Mr. Musk said he would go ahead with the acquisition at the original price if the lawsuit against him was dropped.
The case was put on hold so Mr. Musk could close the deal.
Mr. Musk wants to transform into an "everything app" called X, and he has set some ambitious goals for the social network. He said in presentations to investors this spring that he expected the company to have over one billion users by the end of the decade. The company had more than 200 million users last year.
Mr. Musk has said that there could be cuts. A lot of the company's employees could be laid off. The work force has been asked to ignore reports of layoffs.
It will be important for Mr. Musk to invest in the company and pay off the loans he took out to finance the deal. The burden of those payments may be something that Twitter can't bear.
Since Mr. Musk announced his bid, the market for such loans has dropped so much that the investment banks that cobbled them together are hurting.
Advertisers may be wary of doing business with Mr. Musk after he denounced the use of advertising on the social networking site. Some advertisers have been hesitant about their brands appearing alongside risky content that Mr. Musk has advocated for.
On Thursday, Mr. Musk wrote an open letter stating that some moderation would continue.
Anything that can be said with no consequences can become a free-for-all hellscape. They want to be the most respected advertising platform in the world.
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