Elon Musk has dissolved Twitter’s board of directors and has effectively become the sole leader of the social network he just bought, according to official documents submitted by the Californian group to the US market regulator SEC on Monday.
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“On October 27, 2022, following the completion of the acquisition, Mr. Musk became the sole director of Twitter,” read one of the documents, which states that the nine members of the board, including former general manager Parag Agrawal, were thanked .
When he made his takeover bid in April, the head of Tesla and SpaceX immediately made it clear that he wanted to take Twitter off the stock market and thus no longer offered the same calculation as listed companies.
The operation took six months to complete, following multiple about-faces by Elon Musk, acrimonious exchanges with Mr Agrawal and other executives, and the launching of lawsuits through Twitter that nearly resulted in a full-blown lawsuit in mid-October.
The richest man in the world wasted no time in taking control of the platform, which is followed by more than 112 million people.
The quirky leader – who renamed himself “Chief Twit” on his profile – brought in Tesla engineers to study the work of Twitter employees and proceeded with layoffs.
He tried to reassure advertisers, the group’s main source of income, by assuring them that Twitter wasn’t going to be “going like hell” and by announcing the imminent formation of a “Content Moderation Council.” At the same time, he promised users that people “suspended for minor or questionable reasons” would be “released from Twitter jail.”
His new company has also offered to buy back all outstanding bonds issued by Twitter, according to the SEC filing.
Elon Musk funded the transaction with his personal fortune, contributions from mutual funds and other large fortunes, and bank loans that Blue Bird has to repay.
According to another document submitted to the SEC, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal became the site’s second largest shareholder.
The businessman, who initially turned down Elon Musk’s offer because he felt it was too low compared to “Twitter’s intrinsic value,” ended up bringing him the nearly 35 million shares he already owned.
“Dear friend Chief Twit @elonmusk. Together until the end @Twitter,” Al-Waleed Bin Talal tweeted on Friday, with a “handshake” emoji in response to Elon Musk’s “Bird is released” tweet.