Regardless of the final outcome, Elon Musk has certainly caused quite the ruckus over at Twitter HQ. Adding to the recent staff reshuffle, three more senior executives are now leaving the company, amid the ebb and flow of this entire takeover drama. Just last week, CEO Parag Agrawal announced the departure of Twitter’s Consumer Product Leader Kayvon Beykpour and Head of Revenue Product Bruce Falck. Both leaders have apparently been informed that they were ‘no longer required’.
As Bloomberg reports:
“Ilya Brown, a VP of product management, Katrina Lane, VP of Twitter Service, and Max Schmeiser, head of data science, are all leaving the company, according to internal memos described to Bloomberg. All three chose to exit on their own, according to the memos.”
Three Times Charming
These aren’t just any other executives, but rather are top voices at the business that are now moving on – we should expect that the list won’t stop here; with the Musk takeover deal now in a new state of flux, pressures will continue to ramp up even more, further heightening the already-tense internal atmosphere.
As a recap, here’s where we’re at – over the weekend, Musk said that his $44 billion Twitter takeover was effectively ‘on hold’ because he didn’t believe Twitter’s official SEC reporting that less than 5% of its active user count was made up of fake profiles. Musk has made a big deal about the need for Twitter to tackle its issue of bots and fake accounts. As per his personal experience, many accounts don’t represent real people, which he’s vowed to resolve upon taking ownership of the company.
Current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal publicly responded to Musk’s critiques, explaining the process behind its assessment of these so-called fake numbers. Today, Musk reiterated that he will not proceed with the deal if Twitter cannot definitively prove its fake user claims. On these grounds, Twitter might just be hard-pressed to do so, though exiting the deal won’t be simple for Musk either. Again, no matter the outcome, Twitter has already been dealt irreparable ‘damage’. With so many of its senior executives moving on, regardless of their motives, the company’s trajectory has been inevitably altered, making Agrawal a more hardened leader if, for some reason, Musk does decide to back out.
“Twitter is committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as promptly as practicable.”
So there is some legal precedent for Musk pulling out entirely, however, Twitter has been reporting these numbers since 2013, nearly voiding Musk’s chance of arguing under the pretense of being ‘unaware’. Either way, Musk can certainly try. We should expect more to come; Twitter’s trip is far from over.
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