Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X with ambitions of becoming an "everything app," was a headline-grabbing story of 2022. However, an upcoming biography sheds light on behind-the-scenes details.
What Happened: Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, a deal marked by public drama, a lawsuit, and a second offer to finalize the acquisition.
“The way that Musk blustered into buying Twitter and renaming it X was a harbinger of the way he now runs it: impulsively and irreverently,” Walter Isaacson, Musk's biographer, wrote for the Wall Street Journal.
Musk initially bought Twitter shares with the goal of turning it into an everything app while championing free speech. He had a dinner meeting with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Chairman Bret Taylor in March, finding Agrawal likable but perhaps not CEO material in Musk's eyes. Musk believed managers shouldn't strive to be liked.
Isaacson quoted Musk as saying, "What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon, and Parag is not that."
Related Link: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Parag Agrawal
Why It’s Important: Initially, Musk planned to join Twitter's Board of Directors and help drive changes within the company. However, after a disagreement with Agrawal over text messages, Musk decided to make an offer to acquire Twitter.
“It’s very clear that the inmates are running the system,” Musk said of Twitter’s workers.
“Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag won’t work,” Musk told Taylor via text and said that “drastic action was needed” to fix the company.
The acquisition process intensified, and the deal was eventually closed in late October 2022.
A visit to Twitter's headquarters left Musk unimpressed with amenities like a yoga studio, fitness room, game arcades, and free meals. He also criticized gender diversity signs on bathrooms and Twitter t-shirts with "stay woke" slogans.
Musk accelerated the closing of the deal to Thursday night, allowing him to fire Agrawal and other Twitter executives before their stock options vested.
“It was audacious, even ruthless. But it was justified in Musk’s mind because of his conviction that Twitter’s management had misled him,” Isaacson said.
“There’s a 200-million differential in the cookie jar between closing tonight and doing it tomorrow morning,” Musk told Isaacson.
Musk said Agrawal tried to resign, but the timing of the closing saw email cutoff as part of the plan.
Musk's lawyer told Isaacson they beat him to it with their firing coming before the resignation letter could be accepted.
The upcoming biography titled "Elon Musk" will be released on Sept. 12 by Isaacson and comes from Simon & Schuster. The book company is being acquired from Paramount Global PARA by KKR & Co KKR.
Read Next: 52 Fun Facts And Figures About Elon Musk
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