Elon Musk has hit the ground sprinting after his Twitter takeover, seeking major changes to the platform only days after finalizing his controversial $44 billion purchase.
Documents filed Monday with the US Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) showed that Musk has become Twitter's sole director after
finalising the deal last week and dissolving its corporate board.
The documents state that the "consummation of the
Merger" occurred on October 27, at which point "Mr. Musk became the
sole director of Twitter," while the entire board, including CEO Parag
Agrawal, were let go.
When he made his initial buyout offer in April, Musk - also
the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX - stated that he intended to remove Twitter from
the public market, after which fewer public disclosures would be required.
When the unpredictable billionaire tried to walk away from
the deal, Twitter sued Musk in a Delaware court.
But with an October trial date looming, Musk revived the
deal in early October, ultimately sealing the takeover at $54.20 per share last
week.
After changing his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit,"
Musk reportedly worked over the weekend with software engineers from Tesla to
look under the hood of the one-to-many messaging platform, and on planning
massive layoffs.
The team has reportedly been attempting to monetise
Twitter's identity verification feature, which gives certain users a prized
blue check mark next to their profile.
One option, The Verge reports, would be to require verified
users to sign up for the platform's paid subscription service, Twitter Blue,
which currently costs just under five dollars a month.
That price would increase to around $20 a month, and if
unpaid, verified users would lose their blue check mark.
"The whole verification process is being revamped right
now," tweeted Musk on Sunday
The new boss has also asked teams to relaunch Vine by the
end of the year, newsite Axios reported.
Twitter bought the ultra-short video app in 2012, long
before TikTok became the format's dominant player, but shuttered it four years
later.
The Washington Post has reported that the multi-billionaire
plans to fire some 75 percent of his new company's 7,500 employees.
Musk's previous comments condemning Twitter's content
moderation policies as heavy-handed - as well as his frequent posts of
boundary-testing memes - has given pause to some advertisers, the company's
main source of revenue.
He tried to calm the nerves by reassuring that the site
would not become a "free-for-all hellscape," and announced the
formation of a content moderation council.
On Monday, he traveled to New York, where his team met with
several advertisers to try to reassure them, according to The Information.
The new Musk-led entity formed under the merger agreement
has also offered to buy back all of Twitter's outstanding bonds, according to
the SEC filing.
Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, financed the
massive deal through a mixture of his own funds, money from other investment
groups and loans from banks which will have to be reimbursed.
According to another Twitter document filed with the SEC,
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal has become the site's second largest
shareholder.
The businessman, who had initially rejected Musk's offer as
too low compared to Twitter's "intrinsic value," eventually
contributed the nearly 35 million shares he already owned.
"Dear friend 'Chief Twit' @elonmusk," wrote
Al-Waleed on Twitter last Friday with a statement announcing the rollover of
his shares.
"Together all the way," he added, with an emoji of
two hands shaking.