Elon Musk Bought Twitter: Here's Who He Fired First

After finalizing his takeover of popular social media platform Twitter, it seems Elon Musk's first order of business was kicking out a number of its key members. The Tesla head's Twitter buyout was quite a tumultuous ordeal involving as much backtracking as there were advances. What started as a tweet that some didn't take very seriously, however, has now turned into reality as Musk closes his $44 billion deal, officially acquiring Twitter this week (via CNBC).

Musk would've landed himself in a legal dispute with the company had he not followed through with his multi-billion dollar deal by Friday. The tech mogul already drew attention earlier this week when he entered Twitter headquarters while carrying a sink – an emphasis on allowing his corporate presence to "sink in." As the new leader at the helm, Musk has set his sights on making some big changes to the popular platform. But before he gets to that, he's taken out some of the bigger names at the company first, including then Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and legal head Vijaya Gadde.

The fired Twitter executives, which reportedly included general counsel head Sean Edgett, were escorted "hastily" off the company's premises, according to The Washington Post. Neither Musk nor the fired executives could be reached for comment by The Washington Post, though late last night, Musk did announce the completion of his takeover in a tweet that simply said "the bird is freed."

the bird is freed

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

From here, The Washington Post reports that Twitter will likely become a private company on Friday, and after that happens, we'll see what changes Musk implements as CEO. As for what's next for the fired Twitter executives, The Guardian reports that they're receiving large payouts upon their terminations, with Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde supposedly getting $38.7 million, $25.5 million, and $12.5 million packages, respectively. Time will tell how Musk will shape Twitter's future moving forward, but one thing's for sure: the parties involved certainly seem to have been well compensated for all their troubles.