SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk has become Twitter’s sole director after finalizing his $44 billion purchase of the social media site and dissolving its corporate board, documents filed Monday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed.
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 social media giant, as well as planning massive layoffs.
He tried to calm the nerves of advertisers, Twitter’s main source of revenue, by reassuring them that the site would not become a “free-for-all hellscape,” and announced the formation of a content moderation council.
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.
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