New York: After months of dithering and court battles, Elon Musk finally took over Twitter in October last year in a $44 billion deal.
The billionaire set in motion radical changes at the social media platform, and started by sacking top executives including then-CEO Parag Agrawal.
It made headlines worldwide. But it’s only now that some light has been thrown on Musk’s thought process behind the decision to fire Indian-American Agrawal.
A report in The Wall Street Journal has revealed that Agrawal and Musk met over dinner in March 2022.
The report, based on an excerpt from a biography on Musk which will be published on September 12, said that he wasn’t impressed by IIT Bombay alumnus Agrawal during their dinner date.
According to the book, written by Walter Isaacson, Musk had said post the meeting that Agrawal was a really nice guy but that isn’t what is needed to be a CEO.
“What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon. And Parag is not that,” the book quotes Musk as saying.
Just before their meeting, Musk’s buying of Twitter stocks had become public knowledge. He was Twitter’s biggest shareholder by the spring of 2022.
Musk served as CEO of Twitter (now X) till June this year, when he stepped down and appointed Linda Yaccarino in that role.