Elon Musk assumed the reins of Twitter on Thursday after completing the process of buying the social network. Among his first decisions was to fire Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.
The wave of layoffs among the top executives of the social network also involved the dismissal of Ned Segal, chief financial officer; Sean Edgett, General Counsel; and Vijaya Gadde, the director of legal policy, trust and security. According to comments, some of them were escorted out of the company by security personnel.
Musk’s decision comes after harshly criticizing the former CEO of Twitter and the work he had been doing within the company. Likewise, the billionaire had also attacked Gadde for having participated in the decision-making that culminated in the veto of the platform by former President Donald Trump.
The confrontation between the two became evident after some of the messages that Musk and Gadde had exchanged as part of the company’s purchase process were revealed.
After hearing the news of the layoffs late, the billionaire published a tweet that read “the bird is free”, alluding to the company’s logo and the fact that it was already under his control.
All this comes at a time of uncertainty within Twitter because, according to information published by Bloomberg, the owner of SpaceX and Tesla also planned to lay off 75% of the workforce as part of the company’s restructuring. However, in a meeting with the workers themselves, Elon dismissed this idea and stated that mass layoffs were not expected, something that contrasts somewhat with recent announcements.
Despite this, Musk has been critical of the time it takes to develop new features for the platform. An example of this is the delay that has been generated around the development and implementation of the button to edit tweets, a process that has taken more than a year and that in the words of Musk himself should have been completed in a much shorter period.
Experts point out that although it is possible that the millionaire’s next actions are to continue firing employees, there is also the possibility that resignations will begin to be registered, so the workforce could be reduced even more.