(Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk became Twitter Inc’s owner on Thursday, firing top executives and providing little clarity over how he will achieve the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform.
Here’s what people are saying about the purchase.
STEVE JOHNSON, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, FORAGER FUNDS MANAGEMENT, SYDNEY
“It’s been a heck of a rollercoaster, that’s for sure, and we’re certainly happy from a financial perspective that (the deal) has closed.”
“I’ll be surprised if senior people here stay around. My guess is with the rest of the business (Musk) will be like he is with all his other businesses – he will be ruthless about ‘if you have a job here, you are supposed to be producing something that creates value for the company.’ And I think the company has needed that for a long time.”
BIZ STONE, CO-FOUNDER, TWITTER
“Thank you to @paraga, @vijaya and @nedsegal for the collective contribution to Twitter. Massive talents, all, and beautiful humans each!,” Stone said in a Tweet, referring to sacked Twitter executives Parag Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde and Ned Segal.
RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR, INDIA’S MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
“Our rules and laws for intermediaries remain the same regardless of who owns the platforms. So, the expectation of compliance with Indian laws and rules remains.”
CHANGPENG ZHAO, FOUNDER, CEO, BINANCE, CO-INVESTOR IN MUSK’S TWITTER DEAL
“We’re excited to be able to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter. We aim to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together in order to broaden the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.”
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT
“I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands … Twitter must now work hard to rid itself of all of the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly. It will be much smaller, but better.”
THIERRY BRETON, EUROPEAN INTERNAL MARKET COMMISSIONER
“In Europe, the bird will fly by our (EU) rules,” in response to Musk’s “the bird is freed” tweet.
DMITRY MEDVEDEV, FORMER RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
“Good luck (Elon Musk) in overcoming political bias and ideological dictatorship on Twitter. And quit that Starlink in Ukraine business.”
RAHUL GANDHI, INDIAN POLITICIAN
“I hope @Twitter will now act against hate speech, fact check more robustly, and will no longer stifle the opposition’s voice in India due to government pressure.”
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook, Nur Azna Sanusi, Tanvi Mehta, Nivedita Balu, Compiled by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by William Mallard and Shounak Dasgupta)
