Elon Musk finalizes Twitter acquisition, fires CEO, CFO, and head of content moderation

Elon Musk has finalized his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

The acquisition, which has been in the works since April 14th of this year, has been the subject of "on again, off again" controversy following Musk's legal troubles. The move marks a shift for Twitter from being a public company beholden to shareholders to a private one that can be shaped as Musk chooses. Case in point: Musk's first move post acquisition was to fire Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and content moderation policy head Vijaya Gadde, among others.

This move will be sure to cause a drastic shift in how the company approaches not just content moderation, but also how advertising and day-to-day operations are handled. Because of this, a rise in the creation of competitive services will be occur, with the likes of cohost gaining traction for their strict anti--advertising and privacy-friendly policies.

Contrast Twitter's view on privacy historically with Musk's: Though the company's founding CEO Jack Dorsey tole Musk in private that the social network cannot have an advertising model for monetization, he wrote the following in his statement concerning the acquisition Thursday morning:

“I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you. For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content.

Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise."

Further coverage: Neil Cybart on Twitter (1 | 2) Ars Technica Engadget (1 | 2) TechCrunch (1 | 2) The Verge Vice