Twitter shares were up about six percent following the deal news
Elon Musk on Monday agreed to buy Twitter Inc for $44 billion in cash or $54.20 per share price. Upon deal completion, the control of the social media platform which is used by millions of people from around the globe, including global leaders, will shift to Musk.
Twitter deal
Musk made the bid less than two weeks ago, which was initially rebuffed by the Twitter board of directors, but later the board approved the deal and is now subject to a shareholder vote. Discussions over the deal accelerated over the weekend as the board of directors started negotiating with the Tesla CEO to buy the company at the proposed $54.20 apiece.
In a prepared statement the company said Musk secured $25.5 billion of debt and margin loan financing and is providing a $21 billion equity commitment. It was not immediately clear what the breakup fee would be or who would run the new company.
Musk advocates for “Free Speech”
Musk said Twitter had “tremendous potential” that he would unlock.
“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” said Musk in a statement announcing the deal.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Mr Musk added.
Who is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk, with an estimated net worth of $273.6bn, is the world’s richest person, according to Forbes magazine. He has a shareholding in electric vehicle maker Tesla and also leads the aerospace firm SpaceX.
With over 80 million followers on Twitter, Mr Musk himself has a controversial history on the platform. In 2018 US financial regulators accused him of misleading Tesla investors with his tweets. The lawsuit was resolved in a $40 million settlement.
In 2019, Musk was hit with a defamation suit after he called a diver involved in rescuing schoolboys in Thailand “pedo guy” on Twitter. However, he successfully defeated the lawsuit.
Musk vows to make Twitter better than before
Musk called for a series of changes from freedom of speech to relaxing content restrictions to eradicating fake accounts.
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” he added.
Twitter shares rise of deal news
Twitter shares were up about six percent following the deal news. The deal represents a near 40 percent premium to the closing price the day before Musk disclosed he had bought a more than nine percent stake. Even so, the offer is below the $70 range where Twitter was trading last year.