Twitter Inc. agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk for $44 billion, giving the world’s richest person control of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms and capping a weeks-long saga that included Musk threatening to walk away from the deal.
The deal, which was unanimously approved by Twitter’s board, will see Musk acquire the company at $54.20 per share in cash, the companies said in a statement Monday. The price represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed his stake in the company.
The deal is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of Twitter shareholders and regulators. Twitter shares rose 5.7% to $51.70 in premarket trading in New York on Monday.
Musk, who is also the CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc. and rocket company SpaceX, has been a vocal critic of Twitter, often complaining about its content moderation policies. He has said he wants to make the platform a more open and free-speech friendly place.
Twitter has been under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management Corp. to sell itself. Elliott had acquired a stake in Twitter in 2020 and had been pushing for changes to improve the company’s performance.
The deal is a major victory for Musk, who has long sought to acquire Twitter. He first disclosed his stake in the company in early April and made an offer to buy the company at $54.20 per share on April 14. Twitter initially resisted Musk’s offer, but eventually agreed to negotiate after Musk secured financing for the deal.
The deal is also a major win for Twitter, which has been struggling to grow its user base and compete with other social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok. Twitter has also been criticized for its handling of misinformation and hate speech on the platform.
It remains to be seen how Musk will change Twitter once he takes over. He has said he wants to make the platform more open and free-speech friendly, but it is unclear how he will do that without alienating advertisers or users who are concerned about hate speech and misinformation.
The deal is a major event in the history of social media. It is the first time that a major social media platform has been acquired by a single individual. It is unclear how Musk’s ownership will affect the platform, but it is likely to have a significant impact on the way we use social media in the future..
