Elon Musk fires top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal

Tesla founder Elon Musk has finally taken over Twitter after a month-long saga full of twists and turns. Just after acquiring Twitter, he took those actions that were assumed he'd do ever since the acquisition was being discussed: firing top Twitter executives.

According to reports, Twitter Inc. CEO Parag Agrawal is among those leaving as Elon Musk completes his $44-billion acquisition of the social network. Besides Parag Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy, and trust, Ned Segal, the Chief Financial Officer, and Sean Edgett, the general counsel, are also planning to depart, though it has not been confirmed because the information is not public.

Parag Agrawal stepped into the role of CEO after the unexpected resignation of Jack Dorsey in November. It has been a decade since Parag Agrawal was a part of Twitter, and his position as CEO was quickly disrupted by Musk’s arrival as a major shareholder.
As soon as Musk arrived, it became clear that Agrawal was unlikely to stay in his position. In one early filing about the deal, Musk said he didn't have confidence in the management, and the two executives traded public swipes. In May, Musk tweeted a poop emoji in response to Agrawal's defense of the company's user statistics.
Text messages unveiled during the lawsuit show that the two men had a contentious exchange early on during the deal process after Musk asked his followers whether Twitter was “dying."
Jack Dorsey's attempts to reconcile Musk, a long-time friend of Dorsey, and Agrawal, after the deal was announced also failed. Musk and Dorsey were unable to work together during a group call, so Dorsey wrote to Musk afterward. "That was clarifying."
As per media reports, Parag Agrawal is not leaving empty-handed. He will vest 100% of his unvested equity awards as per the deal. That surely means, he’ll make an estimated $42 million.
Gadde has created and enforced rules for hundreds of millions of internet users under Twitter’s legal and policy issues leadership, including prominent users who are exempt from content restrictions under the company's exemptions for newsworthy posts and world leaders' communications. A move Musk has described as "essential to a functioning democracy" is his promise to make Twitter a less-restrictive platform for free speech.
Following Musk's public criticism of Twitter's content-related decisions earlier this year, Gadde was subjected to online abuse. In January 2021, following Donald Trump's supporters' attack on the Capitol, the company permanently banned him. Musk’s statements leading up to his purchase of the social media company have led many to expect the billionaire will restore Trump’s account and reinstate other users who have been blocked for breaking the rules on offensive or dangerous content.