Elon Musk is likely to assume the position of Twitter CEO, according to the latest reports. The rumors of Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal being fired at some point sooner rather than later did indeed have legs but it was not clear if Musk himself would step into the demanding role.
CNBC reported on Thursday that Musk would take over when the $44 billion takeover deal closes. He will not be in the role for more than a few months, the report further says.
With speculations of Musk's role in Twitter swirling around, shares of Twitter rose as much as 3 percent on Thursday, while those of Tesla nosedived more than 6 percent. Musk is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Meanwhile, according to an SEC filing on Thursday, the Tesla founder has already secured nearly $7.14 billion in equity commitments from his close investor circle to complete the Twitter deal.
One of the leading investors whose support was sought out by Musk is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who has made a commitment of $1 billion. Ellison is a close friend of Musk and was inducted into Tesla's board in 2018.
Other major investors include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, financial firm Fidelity, crypto exchange Binance and the sovereign investment authority of Qatar, according to the Verge. "We hope to be able to play a role in bringing social media and web3 together and broadening the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology," Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said, according to the report.
Interestingly, Saudi Arabian billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal, who holds about 5 percent in Twitter, will continue to remain an investor, although he had all but expressed opposition to Musk's bid initially.
As Musk readies to take the reins of Twitter, the platform's Indian origin CEO Parag Agarwal will leave with a severely truncated innings at the top post. Agarwal took over from Jack Dorsey in last November. Sensing the inevitability of leadership change at Twitter Agrawal told employees last month that the future of the company remained uncertain.
Last week Reuters reported that Musk had zeroed in on a candidate for Twitter CEO but Agarwal would remain in the role until the takeover deal is completed.
