SAN FRANCISCO – At a virtual meeting of Twitter executives last week, Parag Agrawal admitted he was exhausted.
Mr. Agrawal, CEO of Twitter, had spent the past six weeks running the company through a $ 44 billion sale to Elon Musk, the world’s richest person. Some employees openly rebelled against its new owner, who had criticized the social media service and its executives. Others were upset by the recent corporate transformations of Mr. Agrawal. And it seemed likely that Mr. Musk forced Mr. Agrawal to quit his job.
At the meeting, Mr. Agrawal was “raw” about the problems of Twitter and the hurricane of attention on the agreement of Mr. Musk, said two people with knowledge of the event. But he also conveyed a sense of acceptance of his situation and said he would go ahead with his plans for the company, they said.
Mr. Agrawal talked about areas he said were key to improving: Twitter’s core product, the depth of the company’s technology, the business, freedom of expression across the platform, and most importantly, how leadership. Some executives came out of the meeting with energy, people said.
That was what Mr. Agrawal could do in the circumstances. This is because of all the major technology jobs, the 38-year-old is in what may be the most impossible.
The Indian-born executive, a protégé of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has been at the helm of the company only since November. Twitter was expected to change after years of growth and lost financial goals. But Mr. Musk arrived in a few months, becoming essentially Mr. Agrawal on a lame duck who has to deal with a restless workforce and face the growing economic challenges of Twitter before he is likely fired from the company.
“There’s no one in the world who wants to be in those shoes,” said Bob Sutton, an organizational psychologist and professor at Stanford University.
However, although Mr. Agrawal struggles with the situation, he faces a soft landing. If Mr. Musk dismisses him as CEO, Mr. Agrawal will earn tens of millions, according to the value statements. (In November, he was awarded a $ 1 million annual salary compensation package, plus bonuses, as well as restricted stock units and performance-based stock units valued at $ 12.5 million. dollars.)
Mr. Agrawal will appear on Wednesday at the annual meeting of Twitter shareholders, which will be held virtually. He and other executives are not expected to address the deal with Mr. Musk, which shareholders will vote on at a later date. Instead, Mr. Agrawal will keep the meeting procedural and brief, according to a regulatory document.
Behind the scenes, said employees and advisers, Mr. Agrawal has been working with bankers and board members to close the sale of Twitter to Mr. Musk, though recently the billionaire has suggested he wanted to renegotiate and has made strong comments about the company.
Mr. Agrawal has also slashed his plans to review Twitter as long as he can. This month, he fired two senior executives, stopped most hiring and withdrew discretionary spending after the company failed to meet financial targets. It also plans to improve Twitter’s features through machine learning, wants to make the platform more attractive to new users and move faster to launch new products, according to a presentation at a company meeting this month.
“I know we have gone through a period of uncertainty,” Mr. Agrawal at that meeting, according to a recording obtained by the New York Times. “We are changing our approach to our work.”
Mr. Agrawal joined Twitter as an engineer in 2011 while completing his doctoral studies in computer science at Stanford. He then rose steadily in the ranks of the company, becoming chief technology officer in 2017. He has spent most of his career in the company and has more than 610,000 followers in the service.
As director of technology, Mr. Agrawal worked on some of Twitter’s tricky technical challenges and established relationships with his engineering colleagues and Mr. Dorsey. He shared the vision of Mr. Dorsey said the future of Twitter depended on reviewing its technology so that it could rely more on machine learning and decentralize its services to give users more control over their experiences on the platform.
When Mr. Dorsey passed the reins to Mr. Agrawal in November, the engineer went from supervising a handful of employees to instantly managing more than 7,000 people. “My confidence in him as CEO is deep,” Mr. Dorsey at the time.
Mr. Agrawal made changes immediately. Days after becoming CEO, he fired two senior executives responsible for design and engineering. He gave the remaining leaders broader responsibilities. In internal emails seen by The Times, he highlighted responsibility, saying the new structure would clarify who was responsible for what tasks and speed up decision-making.
In January, Mr. Agrawal expelled two security executives. In an internal note, he said the organization was not running as expected, which was affecting top-priority work.
Parag Agrawal became the CEO of Twitter in November. He has spent most of his career in social media. Credit … Twitter, via Getty Images
Some Twitter employees applauded the measures, saying some of the fired executives had been slow or harassed workers. Others were surprised that Mr. Agrawal would have dismissed the long-time leaders and found him inscrutable.
In March, Mr. Musk had started accumulating a large share on Twitter. On March 31, Mr. Agrawal spoke with Mr. Musk to present him to join the Twitter board, according to a regulatory document. Mr. Musk initially agreed, then reversed course. Mr. Musk said he was also considering an offer to make Twitter private and that he had an idea to start a new social media company, according to the presentation.
How Elon Musk’s Twitter deal went
Card 1 of 6
A very successful deal. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, limited what appeared to be an unlikely attempt by the famous mercurial billionaire to buy Twitter for about $ 44 billion. This is how the agreement was developed:
The initial offer. Mr. Musk made an unsolicited offer worth more than $ 40 billion for the influential social network, saying he wanted to make Twitter a private enterprise and wanted people to speak more freely on the service.
It was Mr.’s first brush. Agrawal with the unpredictable style of Mr. Musk, which quickly became routine. Mr. Musk soon launched a takeover bid for the company, sealed the deal and then used Mr. Agrawal on Twitter for issues such as fake accounts. When Mr. Agrawal tried to resolve concerns on Twitter, Mr. Musk responded by sending him a poop emoji.
On Twitter, some employees embittered Mr. Agrawal, according to 10 current and former employees who spoke on condition of anonymity. He told workers he could not share information about the deal with Mr. Musk, as the details were explained. At first he was also quiet at company meetings, they said, and was absent from an internal chat of employees.
Supporters of Mr. Agrawal said he was legally prohibited from sharing information about the deal, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, and internally expressed frustration at not being able to say more about the deal initially. Following the signing of the agreement, Twitter held staff meetings and sent more than a dozen emails to update workers. Last week, Twitter allowed employees to ask questions about the deal to Vijaya Gadde, the legal and policy manager, and Ned Segal, the chief financial officer.
The defenders of Mr. Agrawal said he is more gregarious and charming in smaller groups. They added that their changes had been long overdue, especially in a company that had resisted the change.
In messages from Slack and group chats, other employees have expressed enthusiasm for the property of Mr. Musk, believing his passion for Twitter could revitalize the company.
But Mr. Agrawal has detractors. At company meetings in recent weeks, he sometimes said nothing would change “right now.” Some employees have mocked his comments, creating memes from Mr. Agrawal making these repeated guarantees, people said.
Many employees remain uncertain about their future in the company, several people said. Some are also bristling with the golden parachutes that will receive Mr. Agrawal and other senior executives if they are fired after the conclusion of the agreement with Mr. Musk, people said.
Mr. Agrawal has told confidants that he will carry out his plans instead of waiting for Mr. Musk take over. After cutting spending and freezing almost all hiring at the company this month, he tried to bring the workers together.
“During this time of change, it is critical that we continue to strengthen our work through greater accountability and execution to make Twitter all it can be,” he wrote in an email to employees, which was seen by The Times. “Our purpose is existential.”
Ryan Mac contributed to the reports.