In a highly talked about move last October, Elon Musk took control of Twitter, leading to significant changes within the platform. Among his initial actions as the new owner, Musk terminated Parag Agrawal, the former CEO, as well as several other high-ranking executives.
Subsequently, numerous employees also faced job losses, resulting in a transformation of Twitter, now known as X, into a distinctly altered platform from Agrawal’s tenure.
A report by The Wall Street Journal reveals that Elon Musk and Parag Agrawal met for a dinner meeting in 2022, and Musk wasn’t really impressed by him. The report is drawn from an excerpt of an upcoming biography on Musk, authored by Walter Isaacson, set to be published on September 12. Isaacson closely tracked Musk’s life and activities over a span of three years.
According to the excerpt, Elon Musk and Parag Agrawal shared a dinner in March 2022, prior to Musk’s bid to acquire Twitter. Following this encounter with the then-CEO of Twitter, Musk remarked that Agrawal was a “really nice guy,” but he opined that being well-liked wasn’t a prerequisite for effective CEO leadership. Musk’s perspective, as conveyed in the excerpt, emphasizes that the role of a CEO entails more than garnering popularity among the masses.
Just before their meeting, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter stocks had become public knowledge, marking him as the platform’s primary shareholder by the spring of 2022.
It is to be noted that since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter’s valuation underwent a substantial decline, plummeting by over 50%. Musk had initially acquired the platform for a staggering $44 billion; however, within five months of the purchase, the social media site’s value dwindled to a mere $20 billion.