During call with employees, Twitter CEO says he's 'optimistic' about Musk takeover


Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal attempted to ease the minds of employees on Monday afternoon, telling them during a company phone call that even with billionaire Elon Musk taking over, "if we work with each other, we will not have to worry about losing the core of what makes Twitter powerful, which is all of us working together in the interest of our customers every day."
Earlier in the day, Twitter's board announced it reached a deal to sell the company to Musk for $54.20 a share. CNN obtained audio of the meeting with Agrawal, and understandably, the employees had a lot of questions about the deal and how it would affect them and the social media platform.
One employee asked if former President Donald Trump's account would be restored, and Agrawal said this was a question to ask Musk, adding, "once the deal closes, we will know what direction the platform will go." One of Musk's proposals for Twitter is to loosen content restrictions, and Agrawal said he's "optimistic" about what's in store for the platform. "The way I think about what he has said ... he wants Twitter to be a powerful, positive force in the world, just like all of us," Agrawal added.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, and Agrawal said he doesn't expect any drastic changes before then, or layoffs. "I have been talking about driving positive change at the company, and I will continue doing so because it makes us better and it makes us stronger," he said. "Once the deal closes, different decisions might be made."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Palestine Action: protesters or terrorists?
Talking Point Damaging RAF equipment at Brize Norton blurs line between activism and sabotage, but proscription is a drastic step
-
Trump's strikes on Iran: a 'spectacular success'?
In Depth Military humiliations 'expose the brittleness' of Tehran's ageing regime, but risk reinforcing its commitment to its nuclear program
-
5 expletive-laden cartoons about bad language
Cartoons Artists take on Trump's quest for a Nobel Peace Prize, cursing at the dinner table, and more
-
Another Starship blast sets back Musk's Mars hopes
Speed Read Nobody was killed in the explosion, which occurred in south Texas
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'
Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
What Elon Musk's Grok AI controversy reveals about chatbots
In the Spotlight The spread of misinformation is a reminder of how imperfect chatbots really are
-
Elon Musk's SpaceX has created a new city in Texas
Under The Radar Starbase is home to SpaceX's rocket launch site
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellites
Speed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodes
Speed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Musk vs. Altman: The fight over OpenAI
Feature Elon Musk has launched a $97.4 billion takeover bid for OpenAI
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 years
Speed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US