Twitter announced today in a press release it has reached an agreement with Elon Musk to acquire the company for $54.20 per share cash in a deal valued at $44 billion. The news follows an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal that Twitter executives were open to agreeing to a deal with the Tesla CEO.
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders,” Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement from the press release. Musk did not change or increase his “best and final” offer which was made public on April 14th according to an SEC filing.
“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 statement added to the 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.”
Reacting to the acquisition, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said “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.”
Twitter investors will receive $54.20 in cash per share according to the press release. The deal is 38 percent more than Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, the last trading day before Musk made public he had purchased a 9.2 stake in the company.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a prolific tweeter. After Musk acquired a more stake in Twitter, the company announced he had rejected the offer to be a board member. Musk would later announce he had made a takeover bid to take Twitter private. Twitter announced it had adopted a “poison pill” strategy in an effort to fight off Musk but the company would later succumb in what has been a dramatic month.
It is not known yet what changes Musk would begin with as he takes control of one of the world’s biggest platforms.
Featured Image – Elon Musk by Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg
