In what can be touted as one of the biggest deals in the tech world, billionaire Elon Musk has acquired Twitter for a $44 billion cash deal at $54.20 per share. Musk intends to take the company private, and it will not be a publicly listed one once the deal is completed.
In early April, Musk had acquired a 9 percent stake in Twitter, becoming one of the company’s biggest shareholders. Following Musk’s announcement of an acquisition offer of $44 billion, which he called the best and final offer, Twitter looked to stop Musk’s acquisition with a “poison pill” meant to block the takeover efforts.
However, on April 20, Musk filed a securities document declaring the financing agreements worth $46.5 billion he had obtained from a group of banks led by Morgan Stanley to complete a potential transaction. This is supposed to have made Twitter’s board consider Musk’s bid more seriously.
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing,” said Twitter board chair Bret Taylor. “The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”
Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal said, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”
In his tweet, Elon Musk posted, “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’s bid to take over Twitter has sparked mixed reactions all over, but former CEO Jack Dorsey is giving him enthusiastic approval.
In response to Musk’s takeover of Twitter, Dorsey said, “In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.” He also added that “Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one.”
In a series of tweets, Dorsey also said that taking Twitter back from Wall Street was the correct first step.
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