Elon Musk and Twitter have revealed that the company is to be acquired for approximately $44 billion and upon the completion of the transaction, the company will be taken private.
This follows several weeks of speculation that Elon Musk was moving to acquire Twitter, but there had been doubts as to whether he had the financial backing to do so. Despite the speculation, Musk managed to secure support from several banks including J.P. Morgan to help finance the deal.
Twitter investors will get $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock they possess following the completion of the proposed transaction, according to the terms of the deal. The purchase price is a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, the final trading day before Mr. Musk announced his approximately 9% interest in the company.
Twitter’s Independent Board Chair, Bret Taylor, stated, “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.”
Musk had previously vowed he would not pay Twitter’s board if he took the company private ahead of today’s announced takeover agreement. The Tesla and Space X founder speaking about the deal today said, “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,” said Mr. Musk. “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.”
With Twitter facing strong competition from the likes of TikTok which recently surpassed Google’s monthly traffic, Musk’s acquisition of the platform could provide it with a much needed new direction as a privately held company.
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