Twitter Announces Elon Musk to Buy the Social Network for $44 Billion

Twitter has confirmed the company has entered into an agreement to be sold to Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, at $54.20 per share, a transaction valued at $44 billion. Once complete, the deal means Twitter will become a private company.

“Under the terms of the agreement, Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the proposed transaction. The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter,” said the company in a press release.

“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,” said Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Independent Board Chair.

“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. “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.”

“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,” added Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO.

The deal is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of Twitter shareholders. Musk has secured $25.5 billion “of fully committed debt and margin loan financing and is providing an approximately $21.0 billion equity commitment,” while no financing conditions exist for the deal to happen.

Twitter will announce Q1 2022 earnings before market open on April 28, 2022. No conference call will be held due to the pending deal announced today.

Earlier on Monday, it was said Twitter was ready to accept a deal from Musk to buy the company. Shares of Twitter were halted from trading just moments before the deal was announced, and many suspected a transaction was imminent.

“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” said Musk earlier on Monday morning.

…developing, refresh for updates

P.S. - Like our news? Support the site with a coffee/beer. Or shop with our Amazon link. We use affiliate links when possible--thank you for supporting independent media.