Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal has largely remained silent by the corporate’s ongoing rollercoaster trip, at the same time as its doubtless future proprietor Elon Musk continues to very a lot do the alternative.
However Agrawal lastly broke his silence following an particularly tumultuous week on the firm, which noticed him oust two key executives, Twitter’s head of product Keyvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck, who led the income facet of the corporate.
“The reality is that this isn’t how and once I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my choice,” Beykpour said of the surprise decision, which occurred whereas he was out on paternity go away. Beykpour defined that Agrawal requested him to go away the corporate attributable to a want to take the buyer staff “in a special path.”
In his new tweet thread, Agrawal deftly mentioned lots with out saying a lot of substance, a basic CEO talent not likely shared by his usually informal, off-the-cuff predecessor.
Agrawal defined that he does count on the Musk deal to shut, however that below his watch, Twitter must “be ready for all situations.” His feedback largely gesture on the present financial local weather, through which the tech trade and the broader inventory market have come crashing down from latest highs. Startups and tech giants alike are battening the hatches, trimming prices and placing hiring freezes in place to climate the storm. In accordance with Agrawal, Twitter is doing the identical.
“Folks have additionally requested: why handle prices now vs after shut?” Agrawal mentioned. “Our trade is in a really difficult macro setting – proper now. I received’t use the deal as an excuse to keep away from making vital choices for the well being of the corporate, nor will any chief at Twitter.”
What’s much less clear is how Agrawal’s choice to chop influential leaders within the firm squares with no matter imaginative and prescient Musk has in retailer. Whereas Twitter languished for the higher a part of a decade with out new merchandise or investor-pleasing development, the corporate has regarded like a really totally different beast over the past 12 months, delivery new client merchandise left and proper, fixing for arduous issues like harassment and experimenting with new income streams to set it free from promoting. No matter Agrawal’s strikes in the end imply, the corporate seems to be switching tracks, eliminating two figures who laid a number of latest groundwork for development within the course of. If Agrawal will survive that course of and stick it out into the Musk period is anybody’s guess at this level.
In the meantime, the Musk sideshow goes on. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO certainly appears to be like to be locked into the Twitter deal at this level, however he continues to sow chaos and rack up doubtless SEC fines nonetheless. On Friday, Musk solid doubt over the entire thing, claiming that the deal is “briefly on maintain” as he opinions the social community’s ratio of bots to actual accounts, simply one of many platform’s many existential points however the one which occurs to be his pet difficulty.
On the time of writing, that supposed growth wasn’t supported by any monetary filings or corroborating proof. Whereas it’s potential Musk is making an attempt to again out or re-price his buy by some means, it’s simply as doubtless that the notoriously mercurial billionaire is simply tweeting his passing ideas stream of consciousness-style, SEC fines be damned, on this case to the detriment of the corporate he’s ostensibly making an attempt to purchase.
