Elon Musk became Twitter Inc's (TWTR.N) owner on Thursday, firing top executives and providing little clarity over how he will achieve the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform.

"Is Twitter dying?" billionaire Elon Musk mused in April, five days before offering to buy the social media platform. The reality, according to internal Twitter research seen by Reuters, goes far beyond the handful of examples of celebrities ghosting their own accounts. Twitter is struggling to keep its most active users - who are vital to the business - engaged, underscoring a challenge faced by the Tesla chief executive as he approaches a deadline to close his $44 billion deal to buy the company.

Elon Musk said on Friday his rocket company SpaceX cannot indefinitely fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, which has helped the country's civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia.

Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over his conduct in his $44 billion takeover deal for Twitter Inc, the social media company said in a court filing released on Thursday.

Elon Musk has opted to seek documents from advertising technology companies for more information on Twitter's bots and spam accounts.

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, tweeted on Wednesday that he was joking when he said that he was going to buy English soccer club Manchester United Plc MANU.N.

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, on Tuesday tweeted that he was buying football club Manchester United Plc (MANU.N), without offering any details.

Elon Musk has sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to legal filings, amid a high-stakes legal battle with Twitter over a $44 billion buyout deal.

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sold $6.9 billion worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, saying the funds could be used to finance a potential Twitter deal if he loses a legal battle with the social media platform.

Elon Musk recently challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a public debate about the percentage of bots on the social media platform.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, said that if Twitter could provide its method of sampling 100 accounts and how it confirmed that the accounts are real, his $44 billion deal to buy the company should proceed on its original terms.

Elon Musk and Twitter, who are suing each other over the world's richest person's effort to exit their $44 billion merger, couldn't even agree on how much to tell the public about their dispute.

Elon Musk countersued Twitter Inc on Friday, escalating his legal fight against the social media company over his bid to walk away from the $44 billion purchase, although the lawsuit was filed confidentially.

Musk's tweets came after a Wall Street Journal report that cited unidentified sources saying he had engaged in a brief affair with Shanahan.

Elon Musk reportedly had an affair with the wife of Google co-founder and Tesla investor Sergey Brin which led to the falling out between the longtime friends.

Twitter's lawsuit seeking to hold Elon Musk to his $44-billion takeover will go to trial in October, a judge ruled recently as it adopted a schedule closer to the proposal by the social media giants.

Elon Musk has asked a Delaware court to push back his $44 billion Twitter lawsuit trial until next year. The trial is scheduled to be held in September.

Twitter appears to be returning for some users after experiencing an hourlong outage that affected both its app and website on Thursday.

Twitter was down for thousands of users across the globe recently, its first such outage since February, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

Twitter said Tuesday it has sued Elon Musk to force him to complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.