Twitter CEO says deal with Musk expected to close but 'preparing' for all scenarios

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said on Saturday that the deal with Elon Musk is expected to close.

In a statement posted on his account, Agrawal said the deal is not an excuse to avoid making important decisions for the health of the company.

The update is significant, as Musk, CEO of Tesla, earlier declared that the $44 billion takeover bid of the micro-blogging site is on hold.

Agrawal said some have been asking why a “lame-duck” CEO would make leadership changes if Twitter is getting acquired. In a response to those comments, the CEO said that while he expects the deal to close, Twitter needs to be prepared for all scenarios and always do what’s right for it.

“We announced changes to our leadership team and operations yesterday. Changes impacting people are always hard,” the CEO tweeted, adding: “I won’t use the deal as an excuse to avoid making important decisions for the health of the company, nor will any leader at Twitter.”

He said that he is accountable for leading and operating Twitter. The CEO also noted that it is their job to build a stronger Twitter every day.

Agrawal continued by saying that regardless of the company’s future ownership, Twitter will be improved as a product and business for customers, partners, shareholders, and all users.

“No one at Twitter is working just to keep the lights on. We take pride in our work,” the CEO wrote in a tweet. He said that he is still focused on doing his job, and that includes making hard decisions as needed.

“I will continue to embrace the deep complexities of our service and our business. And you can expect more change for the better,” the CEO added.

“I will also try to bring more transparency to the work that we do. You won’t see tweets from me on the ‘topic of the day’ or the loudest sound bite, but rather on the ongoing, continuous, and challenging work our teams are doing to improve the public conversation on Twitter,” he continued.

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He also expressed gratitude to the whole Twitter team. “They have stood strong and focused, sharp and agile. They’ve been doing the work, as they always have,” he wrote while praising the team at Twitter.

Twitter shares tumbled around 20 per cent in the pre-market trading on Friday after Musk’s announcement over hold on the Twitter deal.

Musk said earlier this week that Twitter’s decision to ban former US President Donald Trump was a mistake and he would reverse it if his acquisition of the social media company is successful.

• Americas