“The Bird Is Freed” – Elon Musk Closes Twitter Deal, Opens New Era For Social Media Platform

deadline.com:

A cryptic tweet by Elon Musk and late-night purge of top executives closed Twitter’s takeover saga as chaotically as it began, with no formal announcement just a four-word post by the self-declared Chief Twit — “the bird is freed.” The billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX who said he is buying the platform “to help humanity” is set to hold a town hall later today with staff.

Musk has threatened to slash the workforce and will, in fact, require major cuts to meet what will be Twitter’s reported interest burden of $1 billion annually to lenders who helped him close the $44 billion deal — a pricetag that will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street, said analyst Dan Ives.

The New York Stock Exchange halted trade in Twitter shares before the open today and plans to delist it completely by Nov. 8.

The focus now turns squarely to how the self-described “free speech absolutist” plans to run the giant social media platform, which is highly influential in the U.S.