Twitter Acquisition, Elon Musk Is Now CEO Of Five Giant Companies

Elon Musk and his mother are in Halloween costumes. (photo: twitter @elonmusk)

JAKARTA - Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk said Monday, October 31, that he will serve as chief executive of Twitter after he recently bought the social media company for $44 billion. For many financial observers on Wall Street this is a move that could see the billionaire's fortunes run low.

Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling company the Boring Company, and Tesla, also fired previous Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and other top company officials last week. He has even proposed revisions to the platform's user verification process or ticks, which have been free so far.

$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022

However, many rejected the proposal. Writer Stephen King tweeted that he would not be willing to pay $20 a month to maintain a verified badge on his Twitter account. In response to the tweet, Musk replied: "How about 8 bucks?"

The billionaire said that introducing prices was the only way to beat trolls and bots on the platform and that Twitter couldn't fully rely on advertisers to pay the bills.

Musk has also announced the role of his Twitter CEO in securities filings. In another filing Monday, Musk revealed that he became the only director on Twitter as a result of the takeover.

Just received this email from Twitter. This is an actual, real email that was autogenerated 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/7DQp4sNINX

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2022

Musk had previously changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" as an allusion to his planned move. Twitter on Monday declined to comment on how long Musk would remain CEO or appoint someone else.

The following people, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the merger, are no longer directors of Twitter: Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li, and Mimi Alemayehou," Musk said, quoted by Reuters.

Shortly afterward, Musk tweeted that the move to dissolve the board was "temporary," without elaborating.

Replying to a tweet question about what is "the most screwed up on Twitter", Musk tweeted on Sunday that "there appear to be 10 people" who "manage" for every single person who codes."

On Monday, Nick Caldwell, a general manager at Twitter Core Technologies, indicated in his Twitter bio that he is no longer with the company. Caldwell and Twitter did not respond to Reuters requests for comment outside of regular business hours.

Since the takeover, which ended last week, Musk has moved quickly to put his stamp on Twitter, which has been ridiculed for months for being slow to introduce product changes or remove spam accounts.

His team began meeting with several employees to investigate Twitter's software code and understand how aspects of the platform work, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Several staff who spoke to Reuters said they had little information from Musk or other leaders and used news reports to find out what was happening on Twitter.