Parag was not the fire-breathing dragon Twitter needed : Elon Musk

Elon Musks’ biography titled “Elon Musk” penned by Walter Issacson is slated for a public launch on September 12th. The book explores his journey to becoming the CEO of SpaceX and subsequently acquiring other companies. It also looks into the episode of acquisition of Twitter which is presently named “X”. The Wall Street Journal has shared excerpts of the book. In this Elon Musk is quoted to have said, “He is a really nice guy, but managers should not aim to be liked. What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon, and Parag is not that.” while talking about why he had fired the ex-CEO of Twitter, Parag Aggarwal. 

Even prior to the acquisition, the conflict between Elon Musk and Parag Aggarwal was evident in their interactions. Elon Musk had attempted to walk out of the deal stating that Twitter was flooded by bots and this problem was unaddressed by those in charge. 

“We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter. We also lock millions of accounts each week that we suspect may be spam - if they can't pass human verification challenges,” Parag Aggarwal had tweeted in May 2022. 

“20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be much higher. My offer was based on Twitter's SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter's CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.This deal cannot move forward until he does,” Musk had tweeted in response.