Twitter Turnaround and Elon Musk

Late afternoon on Friday, October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk was the center of attention at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The night before, Musk officially took the company private and became Twitter’s majority shareholder, finally ending a months-long acquisition saga. He appointed himself CEO and brought in his own team to clean house. He now needed to decide on short-term actions and a long-term strategy to turnaround the company. In the immediate days and weeks, Musk needed to take decisive steps to succeed against the major opposition to his leadership from both inside and outside the company. Twitter employees circulated an open letter protesting expected layoffs, where they called him “reckless,” “unfair,” and “impulsive.” Advertising agencies advised their clients to pause spending on Twitter, and some threatened to leave. EU officials considered a broader Twitter ban should Twitter not abide by their moderation policies.