Is Elon Musk going to back out of his Twitter takeover? The company’s current CEO appears to disagree.
Hours after Musk abruptly decided to halt his takeover effort, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal published a thread on Friday addressing the company’s difficulties.
“While I expect the deal to close,” Agrawal wrote, “we must be prepared for all scenarios and always do what is best for Twitter.” “I’m in charge of leading and operating Twitter, and our mission is to make Twitter better every day.”
Agrawal made the statement while explaining why he dismissed two corporate leaders and put a hiring freeze in place this week. “Some have questioned why a ‘lame-duck’ CEO would make these adjustments if we’re already going to be acquired,” he wrote. “No one at Twitter is working only to keep the lights turned on,” Agrawal responded.
“We are proud of what we do.” We’re here to improve Twitter as a product and business for customers, partners, shareholders, and all of you, regardless of the company’s future ownership,” he added.
Agrawal is also motivated by the difficult economic situation in the United States. “Some have also questioned why manage expenditures now rather than after the close? “Right now, our industry is in a really hard macro environment,” he said. “Not I nor any other Twitter leader will use the deal as an excuse to avoid making critical decisions for the company’s health.”
Musk has temporarily halted his takeover effort, expressing concern that Twitter may be undercounting the number of spam and false accounts on the platform. “Twitter contract temporarily on hold for details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed comprise less than 5% of users,” he stated in an early Friday morning tweet (Opens in a new window).
In a follow-up tweet, he said, “Still committed to acquisition.”
Nonetheless, the temporary halt has many wondering if he plans to back out of the pact. Musk had intended to fund the takeover effort with $21 billion in Tesla stock that he owned. Another $12.5 billion was expected to be raised through margin loans secured by Musk’s assets. Tesla’s stock has dropped from $1,028 to $769 in value since then.
