It's Done: Elon Musk And Twitter Have Reached A $44 Billion Dollar Deal

Billionaire Elon Musk is now in charge of Twitter.

On Monday, The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets reported that the Tesla founder and Twitter reached a deal on Monday, April 25. This deal takes place less than a month after Musk had secured a 9% stake in the company, which, at the time, made him the largest shareholder of the company.

The company’s board chair, Bret Taylor, was first approached with the deal to buy Twitter through text messages for $54.20 per share earlier this month. On Monday, Taylor released a statement through the company announcing the deal.

“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing,” he said. “The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”

Earlier this month, Musk explained why he wanted to buy the company at TED 2022: A New Era, which was being held in Vancouver, British Columbia, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

“Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it is just really important that people have the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law,” he explained. He stated that he also wants to “open source the algorithm” to improve trust in the social media service.

“This is not a way to make money,” Musk stated. “My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all.”

Musk indicated that his acquisition of Twitter was important to maintaining a “healthy democracy” and called for free speech on the platform.

“If in doubt, let the speech, let it exist,” he said. “If someone you don’t like is allowed to say something you don’t like, it’s d— annoying. [But] when someone you don’t like says something you don’t like, that is a function of a healthy free speech situation.”

Shortly before the announcement was made, Musk tweeted, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

Journalist Ashton Pittman shot back, “Decent people aren't going to remain on a platform that you turn into a cesspool of harassers, conspiracy theorists, Nazis and abusive misogynists (to name a few). You're purposefully setting out to destroy this platform to salvage your own man child ego.”

Congressman Justin Amash called on Musk to “maintain a culture of free speech. Develop clear rules. Enforce the rules equally and consistently. Improve the process for addressing account issues. Make the algorithm transparent. Give users better access to the support team.”

It remains to be seen just what changes Musk will make to Twitter or how long they will take to implement.