San Francisco: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has fired two top executives -- Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falack -- as billionaire Elon Musk stands poised to become the global messaging platform's new owner.
According to a Twitter spokesperson, Kayvon Beykpour, a general manager who leads research, design, and engineering at Twitter, is leaving along with the head of products, Bruce Falck.
Beykpour, who is on paternity leave in a tweet expressed his disappointment that this wasn't how he imagined leaving Twitter and added that it wasn't his decision.
"Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction," Beykpour tweeted on May 12. "While I'm disappointed, I take solace in a few things: I am INSANELY proud of what our collective team achieved over the last few years and my own contribution to this journey."
Falack, general manager of revenue, also confirmed on Twitter that he had been removed by Agrawal but later deleted the tweet.
Meanwhile, Twitter also confirmed that effective this week, it is pausing all hiring except for business-critical roles.
Musk's $44-billion deal to buy Twitter was announced last month but still needs the backing of shareholders and regulators.
The takeover is expected to close later in 2022, with Musk -- who runs space exploration endeavor SpaceX and electric automaker Tesla -- stepping in as its boss at least for a little while.
Musk is on record saying he would lift the ban Twitter slapped on Donald Trump, contending that kicking the former US president off the platform "alienated a large part of the country."
Musk's endorsement of a Trump return triggered fears among activists that Musk would "open the floodgates of hate." Musk reasoned that permanent bans on Twitter should be rare, and reserved for accounts that are spam, scams, or run by software "bots."
Activist groups have called on Twitter advertisers to boycott the service if it opens the gates to abusive and misinformative posts with Musk as its owner.