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re: TWIT MUSK Fires Board & to Charge $20 (£17) p.m For Blue Tick
Elon Musk Dissolves Twitters' Board of Directors
Elon Musk has dissolved Twitters' board of directors - cementing his control over the social media platform.
Tweetee Musk Says Twitter Blue Tick to Be Revamped & Charge $20 (£17) p.m.
BBC News 1 NOV 2022.
The multi-billionaire will be its chief executive after buying the company last week, ending months of back and forth over the $44bn (£38.3bn) deal. He is now the sole director of Twitter, another filing on Monday showed.
He has moved quickly to put his mark on the firm, which is used by politicians and journalists around the world.
The reforms he is contemplating include changes for how Twitter verifies accounts, as well as job cuts.
The Washington Post has reported that a first round of cuts is under discussion that could affect 25% of the company's staff.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment from the BBC on the report.
Top executives have already been removed, as Mr Musk brings in high profile allies to the company.
The latest move will mean that he is now chief executive of three companies. Along with taking the top role at Twitter, Mr Musk is chief executive of electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX.
However, he has indicated that his position at the social media company may be temporary.
'Singular Solution'
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has rolled his entire stake of 18m shares, worth almost $978m at the buyout price of $54.20, into the new private company, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Mr Dorsey, who left Twitter's board in May, supported Mr Musk's purchase of the firm.
"Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness," he said in a tweet after the takeover was approved by the company's former management team.
Meanwhile, technology investor Jason Calacanis who changed his Twitter bio to "chief meme officer", said he was "hanging out at Twitter a bit ... during the transition".
He took to the social media site to solicit opinions on a range of topics from advertising to video.
Mr Calacanis also asked how much people would pay to be verified, amid reports that Twitter could charge people $20 per month to keep the blue ticks that indicate verified accounts.
Later on Tuesday, responding to a Twitter user calling for the platform to purge accounts that had been inactive for more than a year, Mr Musk said "definitely".
Mr Musk, who also leads electric car maker Tesla, changed his profile details on the social media site to "Chief Twit" after the takeover. It has since been updated to "Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator".
The nine ousted directors include former chairman of the board Bret Taylor and former chief executive Parag Agrawal.
Baroness Martha Lane Fox, currently president of the British Chambers of Commerce, who is among the board members to be removed under the merger agreement, declined to comment when approached by the BBC.
'National-Security Issue'
Mr Musk's takeover has drawn widespread scrutiny, as he signals plans to overhaul how Twitter has moderated the spread of information on its platform, including from sources such as state media, politicians and celebrities.
Mr Musk said the company would create a new council to govern those decisions and that no changes would occur yet.
On Monday, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, said that he had asked the government to review the national security implications of the deal, given the large stake in the company held by firms tied to Saudi Arabia, which has an increasingly tense relationship with the US.
"We should be concerned that the Saudis, who have a clear interest in repressing political speech and impacting US politics, are now the second-largest owner of a major social media platform," Mr Murphy wrote on Twitter.
"There is a clear national-security issue at stake and CFIUS [the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] should do a review."
Mr Musk financed his takeover with his own money, a group of other investors and roughly $13bn in debt financing.
Analysts say that the increase in debt is likely to constrain the firm, which has struggled to expand its user base and not turned a profit in years.
Together, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Kingdom Holding Company are the second largest investor in the newly private company, according to a filing with the US government.
Prince Alwaleed, who was a major Twitter investor prior to the Musk deal, has tweeted the stake aligns with Kingdom Holding Company's "long-term investment strategy".
MORE;
Musk Says Twitter Blue Tick to Be Revamped
New Twitter owner Elon Musk has said the process of gaining a prestigious "blue tick" will be revised, amid reports the firm could start charging $20 (£17) per month to be verified.
BBC News 1 NOV 2022.
Musk tweeted the verification process was being revamped, days after taking over the social media giant.
A blue tick is currently free and a way of signalling an account is authentic.
Mr Musk completed his $44bn (£37.9bn) takeover on Friday, and has renamed himself as Chief Twit on Twitter.
During months of legal wrangling leading up to the acquisition, the billionaire repeatedly expressed concerns about the verification process, and the number of spam and bot accounts he believes litter the site.
Mr Musk's tweet, on Sunday, did not give any more details about what exactly might change.
But according to tech website The Verge, which cited internal correspondence, Twitter now wants to charge people $19.99 per month to keep their blue tick verification status.
It says the plan involves quadrupling the price for Twitter Blue - the company's subscription service - and making verification one of its features.
Verified users would be given 90 days to subscribe or face losing their blue tick, it reports.
Employees were told of the project on Sunday and have been told they need to launch the scheme by 7 November or risk losing their jobs, it added.
Twitter Blue was launched last summer, and gives subscribers access to various premium features including the option to undo a tweet.
It is currently optional and costs $4.99 per month.
While there has been no official confirmation of the plan, on Monday Mr Musk appeared to acknowledge the speculation in a new tweet which said: "On no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!"
Job cut fears
In a separate development, Mr Musk has denied a New York Times report that he plans to lay off Twitter workers before the start of next month to avoid having to make payouts.
It follows his buyout last week which saw the exit of the firm's top bosses - including its chief executive, chairman and finance chief.
At the weekend, The New York Times reported that Mr Musk had ordered major job cuts across Twitter's workforce.
The newspaper said the layoffs would take place before 1 November, when workers were due to receive grants of shares in the company as a major part of their pay deals.
But replying to a Twitter user asking about the report, he said: "This is false."
The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Mr Musk's ownership.
Some have voiced concerns that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be allowed back to the platform.
Last week Mr Musk said that he doesn't want the platform to become an echo chamber for hate and division. "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!" he tweeted.
However after denying the New York Times job cuts report, Mr Musk tweeted a screen shot of a New York Times headline about him posting a link to a "site known to publish false news".
The New York Times headline referred to a reply Mr Musk had posted, and then deleted, at the weekend to a tweet by former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
His reply contained a link to a conspiracy theory about an assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Mr Musk also started a Twitter poll asking his more than 112m followers whether he should bring back the short-video app Vine.
The service that allowed users to share six-second-long looping clips was bought by Twitter in 2012.
It gained more than 200m active users by the end of 2015 before being shelved by the social media platform.
Musk has previously run polls on whether or not he should sell 10% of his stake in the electric car maker Tesla and if Twitter should have an edit button.
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