Photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson via Flickr. Elon Musk's lengthy battle for Twitter ownership was one of the largest tech acquisitions in history.
By Shira Sadeh ’25
Science & Environment Editor
Elon Musk’s turbulent takeover of Twitter has caused confusion on the platform, with mass layoffs of employees and impersonations of accounts such as Eli Lilly, which resulted in the pharmaceutical company’s stock drop, according to NBC News. An NBC News timeline of the saga explains that this all began in April 2022, when Musk first started purchasing shares of the social media platform.
On April 5, 2022, NBC Musk announced that he had purchased over nine percent of the company’s shares, pushing the company to adapt to Musk’s increasing power within it. Twitter initially offered him a board seat, but later decided to use the “poison-pill strategy,” NBC News explained. According to a Twitter press release, this meant creating a shareholder agreement called the “Rights Plan,” which states that as soon as any shareholder owns 15 percent or more of the company’s shares, the remaining shares are made available to current shareholders at a reduced price. “The Rights Plan is intended to enable all shareholders to realize the full value of their investment in Twitter. The Rights Plan will reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium,” the press release said.
According to NBC News, Musk then proceeded to make an offer to buy the company at approximately $44 billion, a price that far exceeded the company’s value at the time. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” Musk said. The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter accepted this deal, marking one of the biggest shifts in tech acquisition history that will undoubtedly affect billions of social media users.
On May 13, however, Musk announced that the deal was put on hold, NPR reported. The article explained that Musk’s hesitation came from Twitter’s report from the previous week, which stated that he intends to ensure fake accounts make up less than five percent of all Twitter accounts. These fake accounts have been the long term nemesis of Musk, who added that he was still committed to seeing the deal through after thoroughly investigating the issue of fake accounts, casting doubt on the figures reported by Twitter.
According to NBC News, Twitter then moved to sue Musk to enforce the $44 billion deal, to which Musk responded with a countersue, alleging fraud. In October, the two parties continued to haggle over the deal, with Musk agreeing to resubmit his bid for the company if Twitter agreed to avoid going to trial, which the company refused to do. The judge gave the two parties until the end of October to work out an agreement, during which The Washington Post reported on Oct. 20 that Musk intended to initiate massive cuts to Twitter’s workforce. According to the article, Musk told prospective investors that he planned to cut 75 percent of Twitter’s workforce, which consisted of 7,500 people, according to CBS News. The Washington Post also reported that Twitter management also planned to cut the workforce significantly, although less drastically. Rather than Musk’s almost immediate 75 percent cut, they planned to reduce payroll by $800 million by the end of next year, which would account for approximately a quarter of the workforce.
On Oct. 27, The Washington Post reported that Musk officially gained ownership of Twitter. Almost immediately, Musk fired three top executives, signaling his intention to reduce regulations on the platform. The three fired executives were Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde. The Washington Post also noted that general counsel Sean Edgett was pushed out of the company. Musk has indicated his disagreement with the previous management’s rules on content moderation and said he plans to lessen these controls, which would allow for more widespread language that can be considered harmful, such as hate speech and misinformation. He also stated that he would reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account, which was permanently banned by the company “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” according to a statement from Twitter’s blog following the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
As November rolled around, libertarians and right-wing voices rejoiced over newfound freedoms to share their opinions free of content moderation, NBC News reported. Within 48 hours of assuming control, Musk tweeted, then deleted, an anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi. Before it was deleted, the tweet had more than 24,000 retweets and 86,000 likes.
According to NBC News, Musk also announced his plan to charge $7.99 for Twitter Blue, which would supply users with the blue checkmark that indicates their verified status. Within days, thousands of users had paid for the verification in order to impersonate other accounts — including Musk himself and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. The impersonation of Eli Lilly caused the company’s stock to briefly drop after a fake announcement that their insulin products would be henceforth free, NBC News reported.
As a result, Musk suspended the Twitter Blue program rollout. Additionally, he fired as many as 20 engineers who criticized his leadership both publicly and internally. On Nov. 16, Musk sent an email to the remaining employees, demanding that they work “long hours at high intensity” to support his vision or accept three months of severance pay, NBC News said.
The New York Times reported that Musk has fired approximately 3,700 workers since he took over the company, including the aforementioned engineers and three head executives. He is also delisting the company’s stock from public shareholders, which would turn it into a private company that does not have to follow as many regulations or make quarterly financial disclosures. Alongside reducing content moderation and upending the verification process through the creation and consequent dissolution of the $7.99 Twitter Blue, Musk is now looking into the prospect of paid direct messages to “high-profile users,” The New York Times said.
According to a Media Matters for America study, 50 of Twitter’s 100 top advertisers have pulled away from the website as of Nov. 25, and an additional seven have significantly reduced their advertisements. These companies spent almost $2 billion in ads since 2020 and over $750 million in 2022 alone. The report stated that companies such as Chevrolet, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., Ford and Jeep were among those who issued statements that explained that their advertisement would be “stopped for a significant period of time following direct outreach, controversies and warnings from media buyers,” Media Matters for America said.