'The Bird Is Freed:' Elon Musk Signals New Twitter Era As He Reportedly Takes Over CEO Role, Fires Top Execs

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk and now, reportedly the owner and head honcho of Twitter Inc TWTR, tweeted “the bird is freed."

What Happened: Musk made his remarks in a tweet late Thursday night, signaling that he had completed his $44 billion takeover of the social media company.

The billionaire sent a message to Twitter’s advertisers on Thursday and said he purchased the platform to “try to help humanity.”

Musk plans to take over the role of Twitter CEO and reverse life bans, reported Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter. He may remain CEO in the interim but is likely to give up the role in the longer term, as per the report.

Why It Matters: Musk has terminated Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, reported Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter.

It was reported earlier that those executives planned to call it quits as Musk completed the takeover of the Jack Dorsey-founded platform.

An earlier report from Bloomberg said that Musk denied plans to cut 75% of Twitter’s staff.

Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion and said in April that he wanted to take the company private. The company’s shares are to be suspended on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Price Action: On Thursday, Twitter shares closed 0.8% higher at 53.79 in the regular session and rose 0.1% to $53.86 in the after-hours trading, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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