Twitstorm timeline: The latest on Elon Musk’s Twitter 2.0

Elon Musk and Twitter continue to remain in the spotlight, for better or worse. Here is everything brands and marketers need to know.

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Ever since Elon Musk took over as CEO of Twitter, there have been a lot of changes to the platform.

Some people love it. Others are not so sure. Many marketers have even said their goodbyes to Twitter.

As far as brands are concerned, many have left the platform or temporarily paused ads due to increased hate speech, safety concerns, and Musk’s overall lax approach to content moderation, account suspensions, and other issues.

Here’s a rundown of all the changes that have happened so far. Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s worth keeping up with what’s happening with Twitter 2.0.

The latest in the Twitstorm:

What happened:

  • In January, Elon Musk started investing in Twitter, securing a 9.2% stake, making him the largest shareholder in the company.
  • Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April but raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter had not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number.
  • Also, in April, Twitter announced that Musk would join the company’s board of directors. Shortly after, Musk said he would not be joining the board after all.
  • By mid-April, Musk offers to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $43 billion, according to a securities filing.
  • Twitter adopts a poison pill provision to prevent the Musk acquisition but then accepts Musk’s offer to acquire the company and values the deal at $44 billion.
  • In May, when Musk said the deal was on “temporary hold” over bot concerns. Musk posted a Reuters report about a public filing from Twitter earlier in May that said fake accounts made up less than 5% of users on the platform. Musk then says he wants “details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts represent less than 5% of users.” Two hours later, Musk says he’s “still committed” to the deal.
  • Fast forward to July, Musk moves to terminate his acquisition of Twitter, pointing to the issue of fake accounts. Twitter sues Musk to force him to complete the deal.
  • By October, after a months-long effort to terminate the deal, Musk proposes to complete the deal at the original offer price of $54.20 a share at a total cost of roughly $44 billion.
  • At the end of October, Musk closed a deal to acquire Twitter on the final day before the trial would have moved forward. Additionally, many of Twitter’s top executives were fired, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sam Edgett, according to a source.
  • Musk said that he would forgo any significant content moderation or account reinstatement decisions until after forming a new committee devoted to the issues. “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” Musk tweeted. “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
  • In November, Twitter began massive layoffs, cutting its staff of 7,500 to nearly half.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Nicole Farley
Contributor
Nicole Farley is the founder of Web Sprout, an inbound marketing agency. She formerly was PPC Editor for Search Engine Land (from 2022-2023), covering paid search, paid social, Google Analytics and more. In addition to being a Marine Corps veteran, she has an extensive background in digital marketing, an MBA and a penchant for true crime, podcasts, travel, and snacks.

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