Elon Musk expected to act as interim Twitter manager after the agreement was terminated

Elon Musk is expected to serve as interim CEO of Twitter for a few months after completing his $ 44 billion acquisition of the social media company, sources told CNBC̵[ads1]7;s David Faber.

A SEC filing on Thursday revealed that Musk secured about $ 7.14 billion in equity commitments from friends and other investors to buy Twitter. Faber said Musk hand-picked investors, ranging from $ 1 billion from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison to $ 5 million from Honeycomb Asset Management, which invested in SpaceX. Faber added that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey can support it, and Musk talks to him about the possibility of contributing shares immediately or before the merger ends.

Twitter boss Parag Agrawal has only led the company for a few months, having taken over the helm from Dorsey in November last year. Until now, there has not been much discussion about whether Musk’s takeover of the company would lead to a leadership shake. Last month, Reuters reported that Musk had nominated a new CEO for Twitter, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Agrawal told employees during a company-wide town hall meeting last month that the future of Twitter is uncertain under Musk, according to a separate Reuters report.

“When the agreement is finalized, we do not know which direction the platform will go,” Agrawal is said to have said when asked if the company can allow former US President Donald Trump to return to the platform when Musk takes over. Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter last year.

Musk’s acquisition of Twitter comes at an important time for the company. Agrawal has said it will focus on increasing Twitter’s daily active user base and bringing new products to customers. In the company’s latest earnings report, Twitter said it reached 229 million daily active users who can make money, an increase of 15.9% from the same period last year.

Musk has recently led presentations in front of investors, where he gave financial estimates based on his analysis of Twitter, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The Tesla boss told investors that he felt that Twitter’s EBITDA margin was too low and that the company has “too many engineers who are not doing enough,” Faber said, citing well-known sources. He also promised to make the company a “magnet for talent,” Faber added.

Shares on Twitter rose as much as 3% Thursday morning. Tesla’s shares fell more than 2%.

SEE: Elon Musk’s challenge will be to fix Twitter, not to buy it, says Wedbush’s Dan Ives