Twitter has agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk, who will take the company private in a deal valued at around $44 billion, the company stated. This deal comes after Musk revealed last week he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to acquire the company.
“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, 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”, Musk said. unlock it.”
The deal, which has been unanimously approved by Twitter’s board, is expected to close this year, subject to a vote of Twitter shareholders and certain regulatory approvals.
The blockbuster agreement caps what had seemed an improbable attempt by the famously mercurial Mr. Musk, 50, to buy the social media company and immediately raises questions about what he will do with the platform and how his actions will affect online speech globally.
The billionaire, who has more than 83 million followers on Twitter and has romped across the service hurling gibes and memes, has repeatedly said he wants to “transform” the platform by promoting more free speech and giving users more control over what they see on it. By taking the company private, Musk could work on the service out of sight of the prying eyes of investors, regulators and others.
In recent years, Twitter has also become a lightning rod for controversy, as some users spread misinformation and other toxic content on the service. Former President Donald J. Trump frequently turned to Twitter to insult and inflame, before getting barred from the platform after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol last year. The company has repeatedly been forced to create policies on the fly to deal with unexpected situations.
In an announcement, Bret Taylor, Twitter’s chairman, stated the board had “performed a considerate and complete course of to evaluate Elon’s proposal with a deliberate concentrate on worth, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will ship a considerable money premium, and we consider it’s the finest path ahead for Twitter’s stockholders.”
Past speech points, Twitter faces questions on its enterprise. For years, the corporate has struggled to achieve new customers and to maintain individuals coming again to the service. Its promoting enterprise, which is the principle manner Twitter makes income, has been inconsistent. Twitter has not turned a revenue for eight of the final 10 years
