Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover A Timeline Of Events
This timeline shows the events that led to and after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
After purchasing Twitter for $44 Billion, Elon Musk became the CEO and owner of the company.
The following timeline shows the events that led up to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and the changes he implemented.
March 25, 2022
Musk openly criticizes Twitter. He then polls his followers to find out if they think the company adheres to the principle of freedom of speech.
April 4, 2022
A securities filing shows Musk as Twitter’s largest shareholder, with a 9.9% stake.
Twitter invited elon musks to join its board of directors(BOD).
Musk tweeted:
Oh hi lol
Elon Musk (@elonmusk April 4, 2022
April 10, 2022
Parag Agrawal, a former CEO of Twitter, announced that Musk declined the invitation to join Twitter’s board.
Elon musk has marked not to join our board. I wrote a short note to Elon and shared it with you.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga April 11, 2022
April 14, 2022
Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 Billion, or $54.20 per Share, and make the company private.
Musk tweets
I made an offer
Elon Musk (@elonmusk April 14, 2022
April 25, 2022
A filing with United States Security and Exchange Commission revealed Twitter’s board publicly and unanimously approved Musk’s offer to a buyout.
Musk tweets
I hope even my worst critics will remain on Twitter. That is the essence of free speech.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk April 25, 2022
May 13, 2022
Musk suspends the buyout agreement following reports that spam accounts account for 5% of Twitter’s daily active user.
Musk tweets
My team will randomly select 100 followers of @twitter to find out.
I invite others to do the same and let me know what they find.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk May 14, 2022
June 6, 2022
Musk threatened to end his agreement in a letter from Musk’s lawyer to Twitter. Musk claims that Twitter refuses to provide data about the number of spam accounts.
June 8, 2022
Musk made his demands to Twitter, and the board agreed to give him a “firehose” data stream of tweets.
This was reported for the first time by The Washington Post.
July 8, 2022
Musk declares that he will terminate Twitter’s acquisition. In a filing to the SEC, he claims that Twitter refuses to provide data on bot accounts.
Bret Taylor, Twitter’s chairman, stated that the board intends to take legal action to enforce the agreement.
The Twitter Board is determined to close the transaction at the price and terms that Mr. Musk agreed to and will pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident that we will prevail before the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Bret Taylor (@btaylor July 8, 2022
July 12, 2022
In response to Musk’s backing of the acquisition, Twitter launches a lawsuit.
Musk tweets
August 6, 2022
Musk challenges Parag Agrawal, former CEO of Twitter, to a public discussion about spam accounts. He also polls Twitter followers on their belief that less than 5% are fake.
October 4, 2022
Musk proposes to proceed with the acquisition at the previously agreed-upon price of $44 billion ($54.20/share), subject to Twitter dropping its lawsuit.
Musk tweeted that acquiring Twitter was part of a bigger goal to create an app called “X,” which will allow for “everything.”
October 20, 2022
According to the Washington Post report, Musk told investors that he intends to fire nearly 75% of Twitter employees.
October 26, 2022
Musk tweets a clip of himself carrying a kitchen sink to Twitter headquarters. He then changes his Twitter bio from “Chief Twit” to signal that the buyout is almost complete.
Musk told Twitter employees that layoffs would occur, but not at the scale previously reported.
October 27, 2022
Musk and Twitter conclude the deal. Musk becomes the new owner. Musk immediately fires Agrawal (CFO), Ned Segal, Gadde, and Sean Edgett, general counsel.
Musk tweeted:
October 30, 2022
Musk announces plans to overhaul Twitter’s verification system and tweeting:
A report indicates that Musk may be considering charging users to verify their identities.
A separate report states that Musk intends to offer verification checkmarks through Twitter Blue and raise the price to $19.99 monthly.
November 1, 2022
Musk and Stephen King exchanged tweets. Musk confirmed plans to charge verification at a lower price of $8 per month.
Musk follows up with a tweet:
“I will give the reasoning in a longer form before it is implemented.” This is the only process to defeat bots & trolls.
Musk ordered Twitter staff to work 12-hour hours to launch the new verification systems within one week.
November 4, 2022
Musk cuts half the employees of Twitter as part of a supposedly cost-cutting initiative.
Musk claims that the company’s revenue has fallen dramatically, and Musk is causing the layoffs.
Musk says he doesn’t have a choice when it comes to the layoffs
November 9, 2022
Twitter launches a new verification system. All users will receive a blue checkmark when they purchase Twitter Blue.
November 10, 2022
Musk warns of a dire financial situation in his first address to Twitter employees since he took over the company.
Musk claimed that Twitter does not have enough cash flow to sustain itself and mentioned the possibility of bankruptcy.
November 11, 2022
Musk suspends Twitter Blue subscriptions because of accounts that abuse the verification checkmark and impersonate brands or public figures.
Musk tweets
Additional top executives have resigned from their positions at Twitter.
November 12, 2022
Musk’s leadership has seen Twitter fire around 80% of contract workers without notice.
November 14, 2022
Musk announced that Twitter would turn off “bloatware” for microservices, which he claimed isn’t necessary to allow the site to function.
Experts warn about a possible Twitter outage caused by turning off microservices. They also recommend backing up personal information.
November 15, 2022
Musk fires employees who express negative opinions about him on a private Slack channel.
Yao Yue, a former Principal Software Engineer at Twitter, tweets:
Twitter has officially fired me after 12 incredible years and three weeks of chaos.
I never imagined I would stay this long and be relieved to be done finally.
There are many stories I can tell. But to my fellow (ex-)tweeps-#LoveWhereYouWorked
— Yao Yue Yue Yao November 15, 2022
The legal battle between Twitter & Musk is over as the judge dismissed the lawsuit.