After months of uncertainty as to whether the acquisition would actually go through, billionaire Elon Musk has completed his Twitter takeover in a deal reportedly valued at $44 billion. New ownership of the platform is expected to lead to shake-ups, and several executives have already been shown the door.
CNBC first reported the deal’s closure and that former CEO Parag Agrawal and chief financial officer Ned Segal have been fired by Musk.
CEO Parag Agrawal
Agrawal first began working for the company in 2011 as a software engineer, and was promoted to chief technology officer in October 2017, according to his LinkedIn page. In November 2021, Argawal became CEO of the platform, serving in the job for just under a year prior to the takeover.
Agrawal’s tenure as CEO followed that of Jack Dorsey, who stepped down from the position last year. Dorsey co-founded the platform in 2006 and was CEO until 2008. After a break, Dorsey served as CEO again between 2015 and 2021.
CFO Ned Segal
Segal has also left the company after first being hired in 2017. He previously held leadership positions at Beyond Meat, Intuit, and Goldman Sachs. Multiple outlets have reported that Argawal and Segal were fired from their positions after the takeover.
“Thursday concluded five years at Twitter. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such an incredible group of people building the world’s town square for all of our stakeholders. The work isn’t complete, but we made meaningful progress.,” Segal Tweeted this morning.
Head of Legal Policy Vijaya Gadde
The Washington Post first reported Gadde was fired as head of legal policy following Musk’s acquisition. During her time at the platform, Gadde led the team responsible for removing former President Donald Trump from Twitter following the January 6 Capitol riot.
Trump was permanently suspended from the platform on January 8, 2021, and although many suspected a Musk acquisition would allow Trump to tweet again, the former president has not committed to re-joining the platform. Gadde worked at Twitter for over a decade, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Chairman Bret Taylor
Former Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect he no longer serves in that position, showing his time at the company ended in October 2022. Taylor previously served as a board member for five years between 2016 and 2021, and became chairman in November 2021.
Instead, Taylor’s profile shows he’s currently only Co-CEO of Salesforce, where he’s been employed for the past 6 years. During the legal drama surrounding the acquisition, Taylor said the company would sue Musk forcing him to complete the transaction, a move that eventually took place.
General Counsel Sean Edgett
Edgett had worked at Twitter since 2012. Numerous reports say Edgett was fired by Musk, along with Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde. Edgett previously worked as director of legal at NetApp and is a graduate of Pepperdine Law and University of California, San Diego.