Twitter has agreed to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's offer to buy the company for $44 billion, Twitter announced today. Bloomberg was first to report early Monday morning that a deal between the two parties was imminent.
Two weeks ago, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share. Twitter and Musk, following weeks of speculation and public drama, agreed today to the $44 billion deal. Earlier reports indicated that Twitter's board was concerned that Musk's offer would be undervaluing the company by the time the social-media giant announces its Q2 earnings later this week.
Before his offer to outright purchase the platform, Musk purchased 9.2% of the company following heavy criticism of Twitter, on Twitter. Following his share purchase, Musk was poised to join the company's board to try and enact changes he said would promote "freedom of speech," but Twitter's CEO, Parag Agrawal, unexpectedly announced that Musk would no longer be joining the board.
In a statement, Musk said that he wants to make Twitter "better than ever" with new product features that will defeat spam bots and authenticate all humans.
"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," said Mr. Musk. "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. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."
When Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter is complete, Twitter will become a privately held company. The deal is expected to close in 2022, subject to approval of Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
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