Elon Musk is buying Twitter after all.
The social media site announced on Monday that its board of directors unanimously agreed to the 50-year-old SpaceX CEO’s offer to buy the platform at $44 billion.
Shortly after it was announced that Twitter had accepted his deal, Elon released a statement expressing what he hopes to do with the platform.
“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,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter. “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.”
Once the deal closes, it will give Twitter stockholders $54.20 in cash for each share of common stock that they own once the transaction closes.
The Tesla founder made his offer through the Security and Exchange Commission on April 13, a few days after he bought an approximate 9 percent stake in the company.
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing, ” said Twitter board chair Bret Taylor in a statement. “The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”
If the deal closes it will arguably give one of the world’s richest people control of one of the internet’s most powerful social media platforms. Elon is a frequent Twitter user and has also been critical of the platform in the past, calling out its efforts to moderate speech.
When Elon made his filing with the SEC earlier this month, he also submitted a letter explaining why he believed the company needed to go private.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” he wrote. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
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– Emely Navarro