Elon Musk expected to serve as interim Twitter CEO after deal closes: report

Elon Musk is likely to take over as Twitter Inc's interim CEO for a few months after completing his $44 billion purchase of the social media company, business news channel CNBC reported on Thursday.

Musk is also the CEO of Tesla Inc and heads two of his other ventures, SpaceX and The Boring Company.

India-born Parag Agrawal, who was appointed as Twitter's CEO in November last year, is expected to stay on until the firm is sold to Musk, the report said.

According to Reuters, the Tesla CEO has lined up a new CEO for Twitter.

Readying the war chest
Earlier on Thursday, Musk announced a group of high-profile investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Sequoia Capital, who are willing to invest $7.14 billion in his Twitter bid.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi Arabian investor who had previously stated that the sale price was insufficient for him to sell his shares, thought Musk would be an "excellent leader" for Twitter and agreed to roll his $1.89 billion holding into the deal.


"Great to connect with you my "new" friend @elonmusk ... Kingdom Holding Company and I look forward to roll our ~$1.9 bn in the "new" Twitter," Alwaleed said in a tweet.

Legal troubles
Meanwhile, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reviewing Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the deal.

Musk must notify the FTC and the Justice Department of the purchase and wait at least 30 days before closing to allow for an examination into potential antitrust problems, according to US merger laws. The FTC is also looking into whether Musk should have notified the authorities when he bought a 9% stake in the firm in March.