Twitter is a business corporation founded in 2007 in California that formerly ran Periscope and Vine. Upon inception, the company had Jack Dorsey as CEO alongside other co-founders. But in April 2023, X Holdings bought Twitter.
Elon Musk became the new CEO, leading to a change in the Twitter leadership structure.Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter led to several changes that affected those at the helm of the corporation’s affairs. Hence, the merger brought about a new set of leaders and executives at Twitter, now X. Do you want to find out who these new leaders are and how the organization functions? If yes, keep reading.
The Inception and Brief History of Twitter
In 2007, a team of four founded Twitter in California, San Francisco. The four founders are Jack Dorsey, Evan Willams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. Twitter became a successful social media platform with worldwide recognition and millions of users. By September 2011, Twitter’s users had grown to 100 million.
In 2016, several companies, including Alphabet, Verizon, Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company and SalesForce.com. However, the attempts were futile. Regardless, news of the perceived purchase affected Twitter, leading to its shares rising 20% higher.
If you’re wondering why there was no buyout in 2016, I’ll tell you. Potential buyers had fears of harassment and abuse on the platform, so they all backed out without making a deal.
Thus, Twitter’s executives had a tete-a-tete, after which they decided to revamp the social media platform. Their primary aims were a new look, a new feel, and a better user experience.
The surge in Twitter’s user base continued, and by 2019, Twitter’s monthly active users had hit and surpassed 330 million. The Growth was enormous. In 2021, the corporation announced its plans to expand its physical presence by opening an African office in Ghana.
In 2022, Twitter’s monthly active users globally grew to 368.4 million. In early 2022, business mogul Elon Musk wanted to buy Twitter. In April, both parties reached an agreement worth 44 billion dollars, which equals $54.20 per share.
The deal was in progress when Elon Musk pulled out on July 8, 2022. This drastic action led to a decline in Twitter’s shares. In reaction, the company’s Executives sued him. After the charade, Elon Musk redeclared his intent to buy Twitter on October 4, leading to progress in the deal.
The Drop in Staff Population Amid the Twitter Leadership Change
On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter for 44 billion dollars and merged it with X Holdings. He later changed its name to X Corp. However, some people still call it Twitter because it’s the name they’ve been familiar with for years.
Though several changes occurred during Twitter’s transition to X, this post focuses on the change in leadership structure. Elon Musk dismissed old executives and replaced them to make the corporation function smoothly and run according to his whims.
This change did not affect the executives alone. There was a general downsizing/ layoff in which many people lost their jobs. This layoff wasn’t spontaneous. It has long been under working.
When Elon Musk disclosed his intentions to buy and privatize Twitter in April, he stated the motivation behind his offer. He said the company’s management embarked on censorship policies that impeded free speech.
Immediately after acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk laid off Parag Agrawal and Ned Segal, the company’s CEO and CFO. A few days later, Elon appointed himself CEO and laid off the board of directors.
On November 4, a critical downsizing led to the layoff of half of the corporation’s 7,500 employees. Elon called for longer work hours, which led to the resignations of sales executives and other ranking staff. By January 2023, the staff decreased to 2300; by April, there were barely 1500.
New Twitter Executives During the Restructuring
After firing Parag Agrawal, the CEO, and Ned Segal, Musk did the same to members of the Twitter leadership team. For example, he fired Vijaya Gadde, the Chief legal officer, and Sean Edgett, the general counsel.
Upon dismissing the board, Elon Musk made himself the sole director and head of all Twitter executives. For clarity and context, the CEO position is the highest administrative office in all organizations.
The CEO is responsible for the overall management of a corporation. However, the CEO still answers to the owner, who is the sole proprietor. So, Elon Musk now functions as both the owner/ sole proprietor and CEO.
However, this doesn’t mean that Elon Musk conducted the downsizing alone. He had several officials and a Twitter leadership team helping him oversee his new rules and their implementation.
Most of Twitter’s new executives were from his other companies, including Boring, Tesla, and Neuralink. Elon handpicked executives from these other companies to assist him in organizing Twitter’s administrative structure, tweaking it to his taste.
One of these is Steve Davis, the president of Boring. He also has a history as a past executive of the famous American vehicle Tesla, owned by Elon Musk. Steve Davis was crucial in establishing a new structure as he oversaw the dissolution of the old one.
Steve Davis led those who organized Twitter’s downsizing and fired several employees, temporarily leaving Twitter understaffed. Some Tesla executives who came to help kick-start Twitter under Elon include Ross Nordeen, Yoni Ramon, and Dhaval Shroff.
With Elon at the helm of affairs, his relatives Andrew and James Musk also contributed to Twitter’s reorganization.
The New Twitter Organizational Structure Before Becoming X
Now you know the members of the Twitter leadership takeover team. They include Steve Davis from Boring, Dhaval Shroff, Yoni Ramon, and James Musk from Tesla. The team also includes Andrew Musk from Neuralink and Ross Nordeen from xAI.
Even after the takeover, Twitter didn’t transition to X Instantly. It took about a year before the rebrand. However, several changes occurred before the merger, including the administrative structure.
A deeper view of the new Twitter organizational structure shows a new leadership style with a hierarchy of officials. Below is a list of the top executives at Twitter under Elon and the posts they occupy:
- Elon Reeve Musk—The Owner, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Financial Officer.
- Linda Yaccarino—The Chief Executive Officer from June 2023 till date.
- Renato Leite Monteiro- The Global head of privacy.
- Keith Coleman—The Vice President in charge of product.
- Alex Josephson—The Vice President, Global head of brand creativity.
- Jenner Balagot—The Chief Compliance Officer for payments.
- Ged Tarpey—The Managing Director, Global media and entertainment.
Elon Musk held the position of CEO at Twitter for barely a year. Hints of his resignation became known when he created a Twitter poll in December 2022. The poll asked whether he should step down from his role as CEO. A great majority of respondents said yes.
Though Elon Musk didn’t step down immediately, he soon began searching for a suitable successor. In June 2023, he appointed Linda Yaccarino. She resigned as NBCU’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships to take on the new role.
Elon Musk’s Goals for Twitter After the Takeover
Before Elon Musk purchased Twitter, one of his prime focus areas was promoting free speech. After his takeover, some people began to criticize the platform regarding the prevalence of hate speech. There have also been accusations of political partisanship.
Nevertheless, Twitter’s new owner remains dauntless in his stance. Another aspect Elon focuses on is reducing spam-bot accounts. These false accounts spread propaganda and misinformation, although few are helpful.
However, aside from these, his long-term goals are numerous. He calls X his Everything app. The potential impact of this title gives an insight into all he envisions. He wants Twitter to become a globally trusted and inclusive platform for unlimited interactivity.
Elon Musk wants X to expand beyond a microblogging platform into a finance hub. Present CEO Linda Yaccarino says X will be AI-powered and connect the world in unimaginable ways. It will be a global marketplace centered on messaging, video, audio, banking, and payments.
The aim is to integrate finance into the social media platform, thereby changing the nature of interaction. Elon Musk has shaken up many things to revolutionize X’s landscape. For example, a long-form video streaming platform and sports betting partnership with BetMGM are coming soon.
A voice and video call feature is already active. So, to experience the next big thing, join X or actively use your account. While at it, you must not violate all rules and regulations to avoid a ban. Therefore, if your posts contradict the policies the Twitter leadership established, you should start deleting them.
Luckily, you can use our TweetEraser tool to hasten the process. At TweetEraser, we have an efficient multiple deletion tool to help you automate the action. So, start deleting and filtering the content on your Twitter timeline today!
