• Formalization Elon Musk buys Twitter for 44,000 million dollars

  • Twitter Shareholders approve Elon Musk buyout deal for $44 billion

"The bird is free," Elon Musk tweeted Thursday night, after completing his

$44 billion

purchase of the social network Twitter .

After months of soap opera, the richest man in the world has immediately fired the CEO, Parag Agrawal, as well as the financial director, Ned Segal, and the person in charge of legal affairs, Vijaya Gadde, according to 'The Washington Post' and the chain ' CNBC'.

Musk had

until Friday

to close the purchase of the social network, otherwise a trial would have been held in November.

The operation had been going on since it launched a purchase offer for 44,000 million dollars at the end of April, which Twitter reluctantly accepted.

The billionaire later tried to unilaterally reverse the agreement, accusing the company of having lied to him, but the social network's board of directors took the matter to court.

Until earlier this month, a few days after the opening of the process that Twitter seemed set to win, it finally proposed to

close the deal at the initially agreed price

.

The richest man in the world went to the company's headquarters on Wednesday, and on his Twitter profile he changed his presentation to "Chief Twit", an irony since "twit" means "cretin" in English.

He then retweeted a photo of himself surrounded by Blue Bird Network employees at an office cafe.

But after the dismissals were published in the media, several employees of the Californian group supported the outgoing administration.

"Thanks to Parag Agrawl, Vijaya Gadde and Ned Segal for their collective contribution to Twitter," wrote Biz Stone, the social network's co-founder, for example, saluting their "immense talent" and "humanity."

"Freedom of expression"

Musk tried to reassure advertisers on Thursday that he wants to

allow multiple opinions on the social network,

without making it a "hellish" platform where everything will be allowed.

"It is important for the future of civilization to have a public space online where a wide variety of opinions can debate in a healthy way, without resorting to violence," he wrote in a message to brands, which provide the majority of Twitter revenue.

A self-appointed

champion of freedom of expression

, he has indicated that he plans to make content moderation more flexible, fueling fears about an increase in abuse and misinformation on the platform.

It opened, among other things, the door to a

return of former United States President Donald Trump

, vetoed after his supporters stormed the Capitol in 2021.

Some supporters of the former Republican president welcomed the potential change in direction of Twitter.

"Free Speech!!!" Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right congresswoman, tweeted Thursday.

But this position causes rejection among certain advertisers who usually prefer to see their advertisements associated with moderate content.

Musk also stated that he is not looking to "make money" with this purchase but rather "try to help humanity" and maintains that it is essential for the company to show advertisements that correspond to the "needs" of Internet users.

voluntary departures

The controversial businessman also wants to strengthen the fight against spam and made cryptic references to "X", his vision of a global application that includes messaging, social networks, financial services... as WeChat does in China.

Following the purchase, "the culture of the company could

change profoundly

, and rapidly," said Adam Badawi, a law professor at UC Berkeley.

According to an article in The Washington Post last week, Musk told investors that he hoped, in the long term, to lay off 75%

of Twitter's

7,500 employees .

"That was a blow to a lot of people," one of the employees told AFP on condition of anonymity.

According to internal company figures,

more than 700 employees

have already left the Californian group since June.

"They are rather voluntary departures, either for ethical reasons, or for purely financial reasons. Because a company that is not listed is less interesting," said this worker, referring to Musk's interest in taking Twitter out of the stock market.

The billionaire declared earlier this month that it is "essential" that another of his companies, Tesla, be listed on Wall Street, "because if the public doesn't like what Tesla does, the public can buy shares and vote differently."

"It's very important that I can't just do what I want," he added with a laugh.

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