By Senad Karaahmetovic
In a filing published yesterday, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he will serve as Twitter’s (NYSE:TWTR) new Chief Executive after completing the buyout late last week. Musk also runs brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling firm the Boring Company.
Musk previously fired the entire Twitter board and listed himself as the sole Director.
"The following persons, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the merger, are no longer directors of Twitter: Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li and Mimi Alemayehou," Musk said in the filing.
In a separate filing, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said he rolled over more than 18 million shares of Twitter into the Elon Musk deal. Based on the takeover price of $54.20 per share, Dorsey’s stake would have been worth nearly $1 billion.
Separately, the Financial Times reported that Musk’s lenders are prepared to hold $12.7 billion Twitter debt until early 2023. The banks, led by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and Barclays (LON:BARC), want to see what Musk’s plans are for Twitter before pitching the debt to investors. The report notes that banks have already conceded that they are likely to incur huge losses on the debt.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that Musk plans to fire 25% of Twitter staff, starting today, in the first round of layoffs.