There was a dramatic turnaround for the sales board, which had originally maneuvered to stop Mr Musk from taking Twitter
There was a dramatic turnaround for the sales board, which had originally maneuvered to stop Mr Musk from taking Twitter
Elon Musk inks a deal to buy Twitter for about $44 billion On Monday, while promising a more liberal touch to police content on the platform, where he promotes his interests, attacked critics and considered social and economic issues for his more than 83 million followers.
Outspoken Tesla CEO, who is also the richest person in the worldhas said it wants to buy and privatize Twitter because it feels it does not live up to its potential as a platform for freedom of expression.
Mister. Musk said in a joint statement with Twitter That it wants to make the service “better than ever” with new features, such as getting rid of automated “spam bots” and making its algorithms open to the public to increase trust.
“Free speech is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters important to the future of humanity are debated,” he said.
The deal was confirmed two weeks after the billionaire first disclosed a 9% stake in the platform. Mr Musk said last week that he had funded $46.5 billion to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal.
Twitter said the transaction was unanimously approved by its board of directors. The 11-member board includes Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who plans to step down from the board in May. Twitter said the deal is expected to close sometime this year and is subject to the approval of Twitter’s shareholders and regulators.
Shares of Twitter Inc. rose 6% on Monday to $52 a share. On April 14, Musk announced an offer to buy the social media platform for $54.20 per share. While the stock has risen sharply since its offering by Musk, it is down from a February 2021 high of $77 per share.
Mr Musk describes himself as a “free-speech absolutist” but has also been known to block or humiliate other Twitter users who question or disagree with him.
In recent weeks, he’s seen a number of changes for the company, from easing content restrictions — such as rules that suspended former President Donald Trump’s account — to rid the platform of fake and automated accounts and to move away from its advertising. The proposed changes have been voiced. based revenue model.
Asked during a recent TED Talk whether there are limits to his notion of “free speech,” Musk said that Twitter or any platform “is clearly bound by the laws of the country where it operates”. So obviously there are some limits on free speech in the US, and of course, Twitter has to follow those rules.”
Beyond that, though, he said he would be “very reluctant” to take things off and be cautious about permanent sanctions in general.
It won’t be perfect, Musk said, “but I think we want to really have the notion and the reality that speech is as free as possible.”
Twitter initially implemented an anti-acquisition measure known as a poison pill that could make the takeover effort prohibitively expensive. But according to The Wall Street Journal, Musk decided to hold talks after updating his proposal last week to show he had secured financing.
While Twitter’s more than 200 million user base is far less than that of rivals such as Facebook and TikTok, the service is popular among celebrities, world leaders, journalists and intellectuals. Musk himself is a prolific tweeter, rivaling several pop stars in the ranks of most popular accounts.
Last week, he said in documents filed with US securities regulators that the money would come from Morgan Stanley and other banks, some of which are protected by his large stake in Tesla.
According to Forbes, Mr Musk is the world’s richest person with a net worth of approximately $279 billion. But most of his money is tied up in Tesla stock — according to FactSet, he owns about 17% of the electric car company, which is valued at more than $1 trillion — and SpaceX, his privately held space company. It’s not clear how much cash Musk has.
Mr. Musk began making his fortune in 1999, when he sold Zip2, an online mapping and business directory, to Compaq for $307 million. They used their share to become PayPal, an Internet service that bypassed banks and allowed consumers to pay businesses directly. It was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
That same year, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, after discovering that cost constraints were limiting NASA’s interplanetary travel. The company eventually developed cost-effective reusable rockets.
In 2004, Mr. Musk was inspired to invest in Tesla, then a startup trying to build an electric car. He eventually became CEO and led the company to astronomical success as the world’s most valuable automaker and largest seller of electric vehicles.