So, Elon Musk is now the ‘Chief Twit’ as he says, with the billionaire taking ownership of the platform late Thursday, and for now at least, appointing himself as interim CEO. Whether he stays on as chief, or appoints somebody else to that role, remains to be seen, but thus far, it does appear as though Musk plans to take a hands-on role in re-aligning the app in his vision.
Musk’s first order of business was to fire several top execs. The loss of so much experience will hurt the company, no doubt. But Musk has an alternative view on what Twitter should be, so they were unlikely to ever see eye-to-eye anyway. And the departing execs will take home millions in payouts, which should soften the blow, before they’re re-appointed at another tech firm in similar roles.
Musk’s second key order of business is to take Twitter private. Thus, Twitter will no longer be a listed entity, and will no longer have to provide performance updates. Some details will still be available, but they won’t be officially reported every quarter.
De-listing will also see the dissolution of Twitter’s current board of directors, with Musk to appoint a new board at some stage. Who he appoints here could also point to his future plans, which, again, remain relatively vague, outside of a few key hints.
To recap, Musk has said, or at least implied, that his priorities will be:
- Eliminating bots
- Expanding the rules around what users can say in the app (within the law)
- Open sourcing feed algorithms
- Increasing paying subscribers
