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.
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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."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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