According to a fresh filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk will serve as a class II director until 2024….reports Asian Lite News
In a significant development, Indian-origin Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on Tuesday announced that the micro-blogging platform has appointed Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to its board of directors.
Musk, who acquired 9.2 per cent share in the micro-blogging platform for nearly $3 billion, is limited from buying more than 15 per cent of Twitter’s stock.
“I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Agrawal posted.
Musk replied to Agrawal: “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
According to a fresh filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk will serve as a class II director until 2024.
This is a type of position that can be used as an anti-takeover measure.
“The Company will appoint Mr. Musk to the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) to serve as a Class II director with a term expiring at the Company’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders,” the filing read.
“For so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions,” it added.
Agrawal said that Musk is both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service “which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term. Welcome Elon!”
Earlier in the day, Musk asked his more than 80 million followers if they wish to have an edit button on their tweets.
“Do you want an edit button?” Musk posted a poll.
Agrawal replied: “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully”.
Twitter users have long been demanding an edit button in order to tweets that went live with errors.
The buzz over an edit button on Twitter resurfaced on April 1 when the micro-blogging platform said it was working on an edit button.
Twitter shares closed up 27 per cent on Monday after Musk took 9.2 per cent stake in the social media company.
He said that there will be lots of challenges in the coming months and “we will need to be proactive, intentional, learn and adapt”…reports Asian Lite News
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on Thursday announced to reopen the company offices from March 15 globally.
Agrawal, who last month took “a few weeks” of paternity leave for the birth of his second child, said that business travel is fully back, effective immediately.
“As we open up, our approach remains the same. Whenever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work and that includes working from home full-time forever,” he posted in a tweet.
“The decisions about where you work, whether you feel safe travelling for business, and what events you attend, should be yours,” he added.
Agrawal, who became Twitter CEO in November and is the executive sponsor of Twitter’s internal parents’ community, plans to be “connected” with the company’s executive team during his leave.
He said that there will be lots of challenges in the coming months and “we will need to be proactive, intentional, learn and adapt”.
“I look forward to seeing you all back in office or perhaps at an event, somewhere in your home city, or mine?”
Twitter, like other Big Tech companies, closed its offices and travel two years back at the onset of the first wave of the pandemic.
Tech giant Google has also said it will end the voluntary work-from-home period and start having employees in the Bay Area and several other US locations return to the office starting the week of April 4.
“Metaverse is a concept that stands at a cusp where it will be a lead factor in transforming the educational landscape,” said Maheshwari…reports Asian Lite News
Invact Metaversity, founded by former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari announced it has received $5 million in funding led by Antler India. Maheshwari said the startup will use the funds to build a metaverse of education and expand globally.
Invact Metaversity is a platform built at the intersection of education and Web 3.0.
Founded by Maheshwari and Tanay Pratap, it provides employability-focused training to help the workforce realign with the digital world and secure themselves jobs in high-growth tech companies.
“We will use this investment to bolster the product and technology team for the Metaversity platform, build a virtual-first curriculum and expand into Europe and the US,” said Maheshwari.
Antler India invested in the platform, along with Arkam Ventures (lead investor) from India, Picus Capital (Germany), M. Venture Partners (Singapore), BECO Capital (Dubai) and 2am VC (USA).
Global early-stage VC firm Antler is one of the fastest-growing VC firms in the world and plans to deploy $100 million to $150 million in more than 100 Indian startups over the next three years.
“With focus on making education more accessible and inclusive, we’re excited to see how Invact Metaversity disrupts education in the country”, said Rajiv Srivatsa, Partner and co-founder at Antler India.
Invact Metaversity has also raised capital from more than 70 individual investors, like Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase and GP at Andreessen Horowitz), Caesar Sengupta (former senior Google executive), Nithin Kamath (founder, Zerodha), Kunal Bahl (founder, Snapdeal), Benjamin Ampen (Managing Director Twitter MENA) and others.
“Metaverse is a concept that stands at a cusp where it will be a lead factor in transforming the educational landscape,” said Maheshwari.
“Our vision at Metaversity is not only to democratise education but also to provide high-quality learning at an affordable cost,” added Pratap.
For 2021, Twitter registered over $5 billion in annual revenue, up 37 per cent for the year…reports Asian Lite News
Twitter, under new CEO Parag Agrawal, posted robust quarter results on Thursday, as revenue reached $1.57 billion (with ad revenue of $1.41 billion) — both up 22 per cent (on-year) — driven by ongoing revenue product improvements, solid sales execution and a continued increase in advertiser demand.
The micro-blogging platform reported 217 million average mDAU (monetisable daily active users), up 13 per cent, driven by product improvements, as well as global conversation around current events.
“Our strong 2021 performance positions us to improve execution and deliver on our 2023 goals. We are more focused and better organised to deliver improved personalisation and selection for our audience, partners, and advertisers,” said Agrawal who took over from Jack Dorsey in November.
For 2021, Twitter registered over $5 billion in annual revenue, up 37 per cent for the year.
“There are no changes to our goals of 315 million average mDAU in Q4 2023 and $7.5 billion or more revenue in 2023. Our increased focus on performance ads and the SMB opportunity after the sale of MoPub positions us even better for 2022 and beyond,” said CFO Ned Segal.
The company also announced a new $4 billion share repurchase authorisation, of which half ($2 billion) will be executed through an accelerated share repurchase programme (ASR).
The US revenue was $885 per cent, an increase of 21 per cent for Q4 while international revenue was $683 million, an increase of 23 per cent.
“Japan, our second largest market, reported revenue of $194 million, up 10 per cent,” said Twitter.
Nearly 280 million accounts now follow at least one Topic, with more than 14.5K Topics available across 11 languages on Twitter.
Twitter has increased its character limit over the years from 140 to 280 to give users more leeway with what they want to say. That is not always enough, the report said…reports Asian Lite News
Twitter is reportedly working on a new feature that would cater to the needs of those who want to share their thoughts on the micro-blogging site in one lengthy article.
Jane Manchun Wong, known for finding experimental features within apps, discovered the existence of a “Twitter Articles” tab, reports Engadget.
The name itself signifies a long-form format for the social network that has long only allowed people to post bite-sized text messages, but its exact nature is a mystery for now.
Twitter has increased its character limit over the years from 140 to 280 to give users more leeway with what they want to say. That is not always enough, the report said.
According to the report, it is also unclear whether the upcoming feature will be available to everyone, if it does make it to wide release, or if it will be exclusive to Twitter Blue subscribers.
A Twitter spokesperson told CNET that the company is “always looking into new ways to help people start and engage in conversations” and that it will share more soon.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s main accounts in various languages remain active. Last year, another similar account was suspended by Twitter over a post also appearing to reference revenge against Trump….reports Asian Lite News
Twitter said Saturday it had permanently suspended an account linked to Iran’s supreme leader that posted a video calling for revenge for a top general’s assassination against former US president Donald Trump.
“The account referenced has been permanently suspended for violating our ban evasion policy,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
The account, @KhameneiSite, this week posted an animated video showing an unmanned aircraft targeting Trump, who ordered a drone strike in Baghdad two years ago that killed top Iranian commander General Qassem Soleimani.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s main accounts in various languages remain active. Last year, another similar account was suspended by Twitter over a post also appearing to reference revenge against Trump.
The recent video, titled “Revenge is Definite”, was also posted on Khamenei’s official website.
According to Twitter, the company’s top priority is keeping people safe and protecting the health of the conversation on the platform.
The social media giant says it has clear policies around abusive behavior and will take action when violations are identified.
As head of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Soleimani was the architect of its strategy in the Middle East.
He and his Iraqi lieutenant were killed by a US drone strike outside Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
Khamenei has repeatedly promised to avenge his death.
On January 3, the second anniversary of the strike, the supreme leader and ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi once again threatened the US with revenge.
Trump’s supporters regularly denounce the banning of the Republican billionaire from Twitter, underscoring that accounts of several leaders considered authoritarian by the United States are allowed to post on the platform.
Twitter will also appoint a “designated country representative” to hold talks with the Nigerian government when required…reports Asian Lite News
The Nigerian government has lifted the ban on Twitter, imposed in June last year, saying the micro-blogging platform has agreed to set “a legal entity” in the west African nation during the first quarter of this year.
The Nigerian government had indefinitely suspended Twitter after it accused the micro-blogging platform of double standards and supporting the secessionists in the country.
We are pleased that Twitter has been restored for everyone in Nigeria. Our mission in Nigeria & around the world, is to serve the public conversation. We are deeply committed to Nigeria, where Twitter is used by people for commerce, cultural engagement, and civic participation.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) directs me to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operation in Nigeria effective from 12 a.m. tonight, 13th January 2022,” read the statement from Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the director-general of Nigeria’s tech agency, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Abdullahi said that the establishment of Twitter’s legal entity is its “first step in demonstrating its long-term commitment to Nigeria”.
Twitter will also appoint a “designated country representative” to hold talks with the Nigerian government when required.
“Twitter has agreed to comply with applicable tax obligations on its operations under Nigerian law. Twitter has agreed to enrol Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals,” the statement read.
Last year, the government expressed doubts about Twitter’s operations in the country, after it deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari who made a reference to the country’s 30-month civil war in 1967-1970, warning “those who wanted the government to fail” to desist from fomenting trouble.
Twitter had deleted the President’s post, following criticisms from some netizens.
After Prime Minister Modi’s account was compromised, #Hacked began trending in India…reports Asian Lite News.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter handle was restored after getting “very briefly compromised,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a tweet on Sunday, after it shared a link promising a bitcoin giveaway.
“The Twitter handle of PM @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured. In the brief period that the account was compromised, any tweet shared must be ignored,” PMO India said in a tweet.
The account of Modi, who has more than 73.4 million followers, has now been restored.
Before the account was restored, a tweet was shared with a URL on PM Modi’s timeline which read, “India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country.”
Minutes later, another tweet was posted, saying, “Yes this account is hacked by John Wick (hckindia@tutanota.com), We have not hacked Paytm Mall.”
“We have 24X7 open lines of communication with the PM’s Office and our teams took necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as we became aware of this activity. Our investigation has revealed that there are no signs of any other impacted accounts at this time,” Twitter spokesperson told IANS.
After Prime Minister Modi’s account was compromised, #Hacked began trending in India.
“Good Morning Modi ji, Sab Changa Si?,” Srinivas BV, the national president of the Indian Youth Congress, tweeted.
“Was the Twitter account of the Hon’ble PM shri #NarendraModi ji hacked? And promise of #Bitcoin !!” tweeted political activist Tehseen Poonawalla.
Another user warned others about the link. “#PMmodi #modi account #hacked, please do not click on the link. It’s a scam. … Even PM’s account is not safe. How safe will be Indian social media from hackers, manipulators, scammers and foreign influence? #Twitter verified security compromised?”
Earlier, in September 2020, the Twitter account linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal website and mobile app was hacked by an unknown group with a series of tweets asking followers to donate to a relief fund through cryptocurrency.
Waves of excitement swept Mumbai, particularly IIT-B, soon after Twitter Inc. announced Dr Parag Agrawal as its new CEO, a hardcore ‘Amchi Mumbaikar’ replacing Jack Dorsey, reports Quaid Najmi
Waves of excitement swept Mumbai, particularly IIT-B, soon after giant microblogging service provider, Twitter Inc. announced Dr Parag Agrawal as its new CEO, a hardcore ‘Amchi Mumbaikar’ replacing the founder-CEO Jack Dorsey.
The proclamation was greeted with pride at his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), at Powai, where he studied between 2001-2005 and graduated in B. Tech from the department of Computer Science & Engineering.
IIT-B Director Prof. Subhasis Chaudhari said that the significance of any university is often judged by the collective achievements of its alumni and the glory they bring to their alma mater, and Agrawal “is one such alumnus that IIT is proud of”.
“The education and ambience that IIT-B provided to Agrawal, not too long ago, helped in bringing out the best in him. Building on top of it with hard work and dedication, he has reached the top. Our congratulations to him and we hope that IITB can continue to produce such achievers,” Prof Chaudhari said in a warm tribute.
A beaming Prof Supratim Biswas, his teacher at IIT-B’s Computer Science & Engineering Department, who taught him a couple of subjects, recalls Agrawal being the topper of the course in 2005 and bagging a coveted Silver Medal.
“He was extremely well-organised, very bright, well-behaved and focussed in life. He was the typical topper-type material and had all the qualities of an achiever,” he recalled.
He pointed out how IIT-B gets toppers from all over India and to excel them requires “special calibre”, which Agrawal displayed. “No wonder he has got this huge honour at such a young age.”
Born in Mumbai to a Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officer and a schoolteacher, Agrawal studied at the Atomic Energy Central School No. 4, at Anushakti Nagar in north-east Mumbai, where his schoolmate was famed playback singer Shreya Ghoshal.
After cracking the IIT-JEE in 2000, he graduated from the IIT-B, and later proceeded to the US where he obtained his doctorate in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2011.
In between, in 2001, he bagged the gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad in Turkey, one of the many feathers in his cap.
After collaborative stints with Microsoft Research, Yahoo! Research, AT & T Labs for research in large-scale data management, in Oct. 2011 Agrawal joined Twitter Inc. as a distinguished software engineer and exactly six years later was appointed as the Chief Technology Officer in October 2017.
At Twitter Inc., Agrawal is responsible for its technical strategy, overseeing machine learning and AI across the consumer, revenue and science teams in the company.
Since 2011, he has led efforts on scaling Twitter Ads systems, and re-accelerating user growth by improving home timeline relevance.
Significantly, just 24 months ago in December 2019, ex-CEO Dorsey had deployed Agrawal as in-charge of Project Bluesky – “an independent team of open source architects, engineers and designers to develop an open and decentralised standard for social media that would help better control abusive and misleading information on its platform.”
November 29 marked a milestone for Agrawal as Dorsey announced his quitting from Twitter and passed him the powerful ‘handle’.
On his special memories associated with IITB, Agrawal says: “Working with friends to build shared storage and streaming services over the Hostel intranet and spending time near Vihar Lake behind Hostel 4 with close friends”.
And his unique Mantra for Success: “The whole can be much greater than the sum of parts.”
Agrawal is married to Vineeta, a general partner with a California-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz and they have a son.
Musk praises Agrawal
Soon after Parag Agrawal, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, became Chief Technology Officer (CEO) of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk took to the micro blogging site to praise Indian talent in the US.
Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants. 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (Congrats, @paraga!)
“Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants. (Congrats, Parag Agrawal),” Collison wrote. Musk then tweeted, “USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!”
Netizens slam new Parag
Parag Agrawal, the new Indian-origin CEO of Twitter replacing Jack Dorsey, was trolled on Tuesday on his own platform for an 11-year-old tweet that carried racist remarks.
In 2010, when he was not even an employee of Twitter, Agrawal quoted a comedian mocking racism and Islamophobia in America.
“If they are not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists,” Agrawal said in the tweet posted on October 26, 2010.
Questioning this, Republican Ken Buck, who represents Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District, asked how users could trust Twitter’s new CEO to treat everyone equally.
Question: Why is this sentence (from the new @twitter CEO) in quotes?
Answer: Because he is quoting a comedian that had just aired on the Daily Show.
However, Agrawal was quick to clarify his comments to a user. “I was quoting Asif Mandvi from The Daily Show. The article you are reading seems too deep for my current mental state,” he posted.
Agrawal also posted about Facebook and noted that the social media giant is simply a waste of time. “Facebook is like a jail. You sit around, waste time, have a profile picture, write on walls and get poked by guys you don’t know (via gizmodo),” he wrote.
Agrawal had earlier tweeted: “Facebook is seriously messed up. The https settings revert back to http when you use any app that doesn’t do https.”
Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday tweeted: “Wishing you the very best ahead @jack, and congrats @paraga and @btaylor – excited for Twitter’s future!”
“Wishing you the very best ahead @jack, and congrats @paraga and @btaylor – excited for Twitter’s future,” Pichai said in a tweet.
Agrawal will take over from Dorsey as the CEO in 2022. Agrawal joins a select group of CEOs of Indian origin heading technology companies in the US.
In a statement, Twitter said that while Dorsey is stepping down and Agrawal’s appointment in the executive role will be effective immediately, the outgoing CEO will continue to be on the company’s board till the end of his term next year, reports Nikhila Natarajan
Jack Dorsey, the maverick behind making Twitter the world’s go-to social platform to rant, laud, troll or play simple catch up, is moving on.
Confirming long-standing speculation that he would, @Jack, Dorsey’s handle for 18 years, enigmatically said: “not sure anyone has heard but,” and attached a one-page version of why and who.
Indian-American Parag Agarwal, Twitter @paraga, is the new CEO, with immediate effect, Dorsey announced.
Agarwal attended Kendriya Vidyalaya (Central School) and IIT Mumbai and followed it with a Stanford PhD and ten years at Twitter.
Dorsey’s note attacked the concept of “founder-led”. The construct sets companies up for failure, he said.
Dorsey, 45, was serving as both the CEO of Twitter and Square, his digital payments company. He will remain a member of the Board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders.
Salesforce boss Bret Taylor will become Twitter Chairman, replacing Patrick Pichette, a former Google executive, who will remain on the board as Chair of the Audit Committee.
“I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey said.
“Deep gratitude for @jack and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future,” Agarwal said in a quote-tweet of Dorsey, with a short acceptance note attached, a #oneteam tag and a heart emoji in blue.
Agrawal, CTO since 2017, isn’t in for an easy time. Twitter’s stated goal of monetisation for one – 315 million monetisable daily active users by the end of 2023 and doubling of annual revenue. Agrawal’s specialisation has been strategy involving artificial intelligence and machine learning (read: no finance as yet).
Before studying computer science at IIT, he attended the Atomic Energy Kendriya Vidyalaya.
While studying at Stanford, Agarwal worked as a research intern for Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AT&T Labs.
After graduating from Stanford, he joined Twitter as an ads engineer. He served in that position from October 2011 to October 2017.
His early work as CTO was dedicated to increasing the relevance of tweets in Twitter timelines through the use of artificial intelligence.
Dorsey’s exit isn’t a surprise. He was under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management Corp, even over how he was spending his time. A year earlier, Dorsey had said he planned to spend up to six months of the year working in Africa to better understand the continent’s internet users, a move that was ultimately scrapped due to Covid-19.
The hedge fund reached an agreement with Twitter and private equity group Silver Lake to appoint three new Directors to Twitter’s board and create a committee to review leadership and governance. The deal came at a cost. Dorsey was expected to grow Twitter’s monetised daily users by 20 per cent or more and boost revenue growth.
As CTO, Agrawal has been responsible for the company’s technical strategy, while overseeing machine learning and AI. Since joining Twitter ten years ago, he has led efforts on scaling Twitter Ads systems, as well as re-accelerating user growth by improving home timeline relevance.
Agrawal joined Twitter in October 2011 as a Distinguished Software Engineer after completing his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. While studying at Stanford, he worked as a research intern for Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AT&T Labs.
Agarwal’s remarkable journey starts from a Kendriya Vidyalaya under the Atomic Energy Education Society (AEES), set up for education to children of the employees of the Department of Atomic Energy and its constituent units.
For Agrawal, the appointment has come at a time when Twitter is aggressively pushing for growth. Earlier this year, the firm announced its aim to have 315 million monetisable daily active users by the end of 2023 and to at least double its annual revenue by then.
Lately, under Dorsey as CEO, Twitter has been embroiled in different controversies across key markets, including India. Just months after his visit to India in November 2018, Dorsey was summoned by a 31-member committee of Parliamentarians to get his views on “safeguarding citizens’ rights on social/ online news media platforms”.
This year, Twitter had a run-in with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology after the microblogging platform did not remove certain accounts flagged by the government.
In May, following the issuance of the new rules for social media platforms, the Delhi Police visited the company’s offices to serve a notice asking top executives to join the probe into a complaint by the Congress against allegations tweeted by BJP leaders of a “toolkit” plot to malign the Prime Minister and the Government.
Joins elite club of Indian-origin CEOs
Agarwal joins Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Adobe President and CEO Santanu Narayan and IBM Group CEO Arvind Krishna, who are currently leading global corporations.
Besides, the elite club has other honchos like Mastercard’s CEO Ajay Banga, Arista Networks’ CEO and President Jayshree V. Ullal, Micron Technology’s CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and Reckitt Benckiser’s CEO Laxman Narasimhan.
In a surprise development on Monday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey decided to step down from the company he was deeply associated with, handing over the baton to Agrawal, the current CTO, who will be the new CEO and a member of the Board, effective immediately.
Dorsey will remain a member of the Board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders.
