Billionaire Elon Musk, who has just bought the social network Twitter, passes the ax to the board of directors. One of two nine victims is Quebecer Patrick Pichette, recently elected chairman of the board.
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The financial mogul's purchase of Twitter was completed on Thursday evening. The iconoclastic entrepreneur said he would privatize the company to make significant changes.
One of the victims of Musk's new vision is none other than Quebecer Patrick Pichette, who served as director of Twitter's board of directors from 2020 to 2021. His appointment made him the board's first "independent" director, or a director who does not come from the company. Patrick Pichette was also Google's Chief Financial Officer from 2008 to 2015. During this period, he participated in Google's growth program and the creation of the Alphabet structure.
Inside the Twitter sale
Reached by email, Mr. Pichette said he was “again a free citizen of my Twitter obligations”. Last Friday, he posted a tweet in the form of a to-do list. One of them was: “Getting Elon to honor his $54.20 offer for Twitter,” hinting that the Quebecer likely played a big role in the deal. “You will be able to read between the lines,” he wrote to us about this tweet, hours after the ax fell.
He wanted a private lake
We will remember that in 2014, thirteen citizens of Boileau, in Outaouais, won a battle in the court of appeal against Patrick Pichette, then vice-president of Google, and his partners. They claimed to have exclusive fishing rights on a lake in their vast private Kenauk reserve on Lac Papineau.
In 2013, Fairmont Kenauk sold the reserve for some $40 million to Patrick Pichette and his partners. For the transaction, the latter had used a Bermuda shell, The Bay Meadow Limited Partnership.
Patrick Pichette is now a partner at INOVIA, a Canadian venture capital firm that does business internationally. His office is in London.
Purge to come
Elon Musk, who is also the boss of the manufacturer of electric vehicles TESLA, intends to clean up Twitter. The first round of layoffs, led by his lawyer Alex Spiro, will target 25% of the workforce, according to the Washington Post. This represents nearly 2,000 employees out of more than 7,000 in the company.
According to the New York Times, Musk will appoint a new board of directors in the coming weeks.
The billionaire recently called himself “Chief Twit” on the social network. The purchase of Twitter by Musk, for the sum of $44 billion, notably suggests the return of Donald Trump to this social network. Musk defines himself as a great defender of freedom of expression.
