Twitter has agreed to sell to Tesla founder, Elon Musk, in a $44 billion deal. And, once completed, Musk will own arguably the most influential social platform in the world.
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon Musk’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing,” said the company’s independent board chair Bret Taylor, in a statement announcing the deal.
“The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”
“Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the proposed transaction. The purchase price represents a 38 per cent premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter,” the statement says.
Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Independent Board Chair, called the process that lead to the deal “thoughtful” and “comprehensive.”
Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, said in the statement that he is “deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”
This comes after Musk’s emergence as the social media platform’s largest single shareholder on April 4.
He then declared a $43 billion takeover bid on April 14, which prompted Twitter’s board to signal its displeasure at his overtures by adopting a so-called poison pill defence 24 hours later.
Elon Musk says
At a conference, Musk said he made the offer to buy Twitter because it had “become kind of the de facto town square, so it is just really important that people have the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law.” He added: “This is not a way to make money, my strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization, I don’t care about the economics at all.”
Elon Musk added in a statement Monday that “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 spambots, and authenticating all humans,” he added.
“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
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