Even as Elon Musk completes his $44 billion deal to take over social media giant Twitter, the company’s recently appointed CEO Parag Agrawal is among several other top executives who have departed the social networking company.

Shareholders will apparently be paid $54.20 per share, and Twitter will now operate as a private company. Others who have exited the company include Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy and trust; Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, who joined Twitter in 2017; and Sean Edgett, who has been general counsel at Twitter since 2012, according to people familiar with the matter. 

As per an earlier report by research firm Equilar, Parag Agrawal, who took over as the CEO of Twitter nearly a year ago following Jack Dorsey’s resignation, would get an estimated $42 million if he were to be terminated within 12 months of a change in control at the company.

Stating the reason behind acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk mentioned in a tweet, “There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong. Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand grows your enterprise.”

The buyout process over the past several months has been turbulent as Twitter initially resisted Elon Musk’s purchase offer and then decided to sue the billionaire after he indicated that he would back out of the deal over concerns about spam accounts and whistleblower claims about lax cybersecurity practices.

Elon Musk had purchased a 9.2 percent stake in the company earlier this year, which made him the second biggest shareholder in Twitter, although he refused to be part of the company’s board. His offer to buy 100 percent stake in Twitter was initially dismissed by Wall Street and the company had adopted a “poison pill,” a defensive action that would prevent the billionaire from amassing more of the company’s stock.

In his first tweet as Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk announced that he looks forward to working with the company. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” the billionaire wrote.

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” he added.

the bird is freed

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022