Tesla CEO Elon Musk is infamous for using Twitter to tease and tease out various ideas he has about his business interests, cryptocurrency, politics and life in general, but today it looks like he\u2019s making good one of the biggest of his musings. Twitter has announced that it has accepted Musk\u2019s offer to acquire the publicly-traded company at $54.20\/share, valuing the social media platform at $44 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moments after the news broke that Twitter trading was halted, the company issued a\u00a0press release\u00a0confirming that it was accepting Musk\u2019s offer to take the social network private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon\u2019s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing,\u201d Twitter\u2019s Independent Board Chair Bret Taylor said of the deal. \u201cThe proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter\u2019s stockholders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the press release, Musk repeated his refrain that \u201cfree speech\u201d is key to Twitter\u2019s future, though most of his ideas for how to optimize the social network are things the company was already in the process of doing prior to his dramatic intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFree 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,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI 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 \u2013 I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twitter says the transaction will likely close this year, \u201csubject to the approval of Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.\u201d Until those matters are resolved, it\u2019s not a done deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The news comes after\u00a0strategically placed reports\u00a0from overnight that Twitter \u2014 contrary to earlier statements about the poison pill it would prefer over Musk acquiring it \u2014 was entertaining the offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Twitter\/Musk acquisition dance has been a pretty short one, especially considering the size of the deal: it started less than a month ago, when Musk first took to Twitter to make\u00a0lots of pointed comments\u00a0about\u00a0social networks and Twitter itself\u00a0and what it\u2019s not doing well, only for Twitter to disclose on April 4 that Musk had in fact taken a significant,\u00a0$3 billion stake, some 9.2% of shares, in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A seat on the board\u00a0swiftly followed\u00a0before being\u00a0pulled away. Shareholders were annoyed with Musk and\u00a0sued him\u00a0over what they believed was obvious share price manipulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Musk? Musk doubled down and said that actually he\u2019d just\u00a0prefer to buy the whole damn platform. That was on April 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The board baulked and the\u00a0poison pill\u00a0made a viral interlude in the world of corporate tech news.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Musk, currently the world\u2019s richest individual on paper, simply pressed on, spelled out how he would\u00a0finance such a deal, and suddenly everyone started to take him seriously. Money always talks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: TechCrunch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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