Senior executives at Twitter ousted ahead of takeover by Musk
‘The decision was made to invest aggressively to deliver big growth in audience and revenue’
TWO senior executives are leaving Twitter ahead of its $44bn (£36bn) takeover by Elon Musk, as the company admitted it had failed to benefit from an investment spree.
Kayvon Beykpour, head of the business’s consumer division, and Bruce Falck, who leads revenue product, are leaving. Parag Agrawal, chief executive, has also frozen hiring and said that existing job offers will be reviewed.
Mr Beykpour, who is on paternity leave, said: “This wasn’t my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.”
Mr Falck thanked his former colleagues on Twitter and changed his bio to “unemployed”.
Twitter is also cutting on costs such as travel, consulting and marketing.
Mr Agrawal said: “At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the decision was made to invest aggressively to deliver big growth in audience and revenue, and as a company we did not hit intermediate milestones that enable confidence in these goals.” Twitter was contacted for comment. As Mr Musk does not yet own the business, he is not influencing its decisionmaking. Competitor Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, also recently said it will cut back on spending.
The changes reflect Twitter’s current state of limbo while it awaits a new owner. Mr Musk, the world’s richest man and chief of Tesla, agreed to buy the business for $44bn last month, but the deal may not be completed for months as he is still working to finalise the financing.
Bloomberg revealed that Mr Musk is in talks to raise enough financing for the deal without having to link his Tesla shares to a loan amid concerns from the car company’s investors that this could hold the stock back.
The billionaire’s advisers, led by Morgan Stanley, have drummed up interest from potential investors for as much as $6bn in equity financing.
Mr Musk, 50, had originally teed up a $12.5bn margin loan linked to his Tesla holding. This was halved to $6.25bn after he disclosed $7.1bn had been committed by investors including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Sequoia Capital and Qatar Holding. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who initially was opposed to the deal, agreed to roll his Twitter stock once it goes private. Since then, Mr Musk has received commitments for another $1bn in equity and is in talks for more.
This could be enough to erase the Tesla-linked margin loan, easing the risk for both Musk and his lenders.
It would also alleviate pressure on the stock of the electric carmaker, which has tumbled more than 25pc since he agreed to purchase Twitter. Investors have been concerned that he may sell even more than the $8.5bn he has already offloaded to fund the deal.