Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s board of directors, giving himself unfettered control over the social media giant, according to a company filing.
Musk became “sole director” of Twitter after finalising his $44bn takeover of the company last week, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.
The world’s richest man was spotted in Beverly Hills on Sunday night for an exclusive Halloween party hosted by actress Bela Thorne and was accompanied by his former spouse Justine Wilson.
It appears he was parting into the early hours, before a security filing was reported on Monday, which states that all previous members of the board are no longer directors in accordance with terms of the merger agreement.
The Tesla CEO, who gives himself the title of ‘Chief Twit’, fired four executives shortly after taking over, who had been owed millions under the merger agreement- lodging the dissolvement on Thursday.
Former CEO Parag Agrawal was set to received about $60 million alone, but Musk sacked all of the executives and the reason behind that is still unknown.
It is possible that the firing could void the payment agreement, but the executives are deliberating their next steps.
Meanwhile, after changing his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit”, Musk also worked over the weekend with software engineers from Tesla, which has been attempting to monetise Twitter’s identity verification features, according to AFP. This feature gives certain users a prized blue check mark next to their profile.
Musk wants verified Twitter users to pay $20 (R365) per month or lose their Blue Tick verification status.
While details around the new verification process is unclear, the verge reported the company will soon charge users for the blue tick.
Users would be expected to subscribe to Twitter Blue at $4.99 (91) a month or lose their “verified” badges if the project moves forward, according to the report.
Currently only available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Twitter’s Blue launch has struggled with niche appeal and limited features.
Source: The Citizen, Al Jazeera, Daily Mail, image from Twitter: @Teslanews10