Elon Musk has completed his $US44 billion ($68 billion) acquisition of Twitter, firing several high-ranking executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal.
After the deal closed, Musk fired Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to sources.
According to Reuters, Agrawal and Segal were escorted out of Twitter’s headquarters when the acquisition closed.
Musk also fired general counsel Sean Edgett, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The departures come just hours before a Friday deadline set by a Delaware judge to complete the purchase. If no agreement could be reached, she threatened to hold a trial.
In a post on Thursday, Musk attempted to reassure wary advertisers of Twitter’s main source of revenue by saying he bought the company to help humanity and did not want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” he wrote in a tweet for the billionaire.
There were concerns that Mr. Musk’s plans to promote free speech by reducing content moderation would increase online toxicity and drive away users.
Musk, however, stated that when speaking with advertisers, Twitter should be “warm and welcoming to all.”
On Wednesday, he paid a visit to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco and changed his Twitter handle to “Chief Twit.”