Elon Musk has officially bought Twitter — and its dignity — for $54.20 per share, valuing the deal at around $44 billion.
“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,” Musk said in a press release.
“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.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed on April 4 that he had purchased a 9.2 percent stake in the company, the largest of any shareholder. Following that, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board of directors, which would prevent him from acquiring a controlling stake in the company.
Six days later, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawl announced that Musk would no longer serve on the board, a decision the SpaceX founder confirmed in an SEC filing, allowing him to buy more Twitter stock and express his opinions about the company both online and offline.
In a separate SEC filing dated April 13, the Tesla CEO announced his “best and final offer.” to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share.
Last week, the idea of Musk purchasing Twitter seemed completely unreal. How could the company refuse an offer from a man who wrote and performed the EDM song “Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe?”?
However, after Musk submitted plans to raise $46.5 billion in funding from Morgan Stanley, Twitter’s board began seriously considering Musk’s offer.
