Billionaire Elon Musk has started a round of sackings as he takes formal control of Twitter, the social media platform for which he says he paid too much.
The CEO, Parag Agrawal, was escorted from the San Francisco headquarters, according to reports from US media. CFO Ned Segal and legal affairs chief Vijaya Gadde are also reported gone.
Musk had previously accused Twitter executives of misleading him about the real number of fake accounts on Twitter.
Twitter, for which Musk paid $US44 billion, will be suspended from the New York Stock Exchange.
Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Investments in California, a Twitter investor, told the BBC: "Quite frankly, this has sort of been a disaster from the beginning, of course, starting off very aggressively courting Twitter in a way that really forced Twitter to the table... then getting all upset and having a public spat over what to me was pretty well known issues."
Musk told a recent analyst briefing call for Tesla that Twitter was "an asset that has just sort of languished for a long time, but has incredible potential, although obviously myself and the other investors are overpaying for Twitter right now".
Musk had posted a video of himself at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. He is carrying a sink with the caption: “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”
He has also changed his Twitter handle to Chief Twit. and sent a note to Twitter advertisers saying: “I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.