Twitter, after much deliberation, has accepted Elon Musk's takeover bid of $44 billion. Musk has purchased the micro-blogging giant for $54.20 a share in cash, the company confirmed the news in a press release on Monday. With the completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.
Elon Musk's $44 billion bid represents a 38% premium to Twitter's closing stock price on April 1, 2022. Bret Taylor, Twitter's Independent Board Chair, noted that the transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium and the best path forward for Twitter's shareholders.
Reacting to the deal, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said that "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 got serious about buying Twitter
Elon Musk originally made the offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share on April 14. He then disclosed acquiring of 9.2 percent stake, which made Tesla boss the largest individual shareholder in the company at the time.
All this happened shortly after Musk was offered a seat in the table. But the deal quickly fell apart when a seat on the board would've prevented Musk from buying more than 14.9 percent stake in Twitter. Musk clearly had other plans.
As soon as Musk announced his buyout plan, Twitter instituted a poison pill measure in a bid to resist Musk's buyout. But things took a change of course and the board finally gave in.
What's next for Twitter now?
Elon Musk has been a vocal critic of Twitter's moderation policy. He described himself as a "free speech absolutist" and advocated free speech on the platform. Musk has vowed to make "Twitter better than ever."
"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 Musk in a statement included with the 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."
He had also revealed his intentions to nix ads from Twitter Blue, lower its subscription price and adding Dogecoin as a payment option.
