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New York
Parag Agarwal, the former chief executive of Twitter, now known as 'X', was fired after a dinner with Elon Musk. During the course of that dinner, Musk purportedly figured out that Agarwal was not the 'fire-breathing dragon' that the billionaire business magnate thought the platform needed.
Musk and Agarwal went on dinner months before the former's buyout of Twitter for $44 billion.
This was disclosed by author Walter Isaacson, who spent three years following Elon Musk for his next biography Elon Musk.
"He's a nice guy," said Musk, but one of his maxims is that managers should not aim to be liked, Isaacson wrote, as per the Wall Street Journal which published excepts of the book.
"What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon, and Parag is not that," Musk is quoted as saying by Isaacson after the meeting.
What happened: Sequence of events
According to Isaacson, Bret Taylor, the chairperson of Twitter's board at the time, was also present in the dinner meeting.
Musk and Agarwal later exchanged messages after the meeting, which were released in September 2022 as part of the lawsuit Twitter filed against Musk.
"Hey Elon - great to be connected directly. Would love to chat," Agrawal wrote in a message to Musk dated March 27, 2022. This was swiftly responded to with "Great dinner :)," by Musk.
But a month later, Musk while apparently lounging in Hawaii, tweeted: "Most of these 'top' accounts tweet rarely and post very little content. Is Twitter dying?"
Ninety minutes later, Agarwal texted Musk, acknowledging Musk's right to share his Twitter thoughts but cautioning that it was not benefiting Twitter's current situation.
This rivalry and dissatisfaction between the two prominent figures persisted both privately and on Twitter until Musk's tweet declared, "I won't join the board. This is a futile effort. I'll propose taking Twitter private."
An agreement to privatise Twitter was eventually reached in October 2022, and one of Musk's initial actions was to fire Agrawal.
Also watch | Gravitas: Parag Agrawal sacked, escorted out by security
Elon Musk's upcoming biography by Walter Isaacson is scheduled for release on September 12, 2023.
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