Twitter and Elon Musk have reached a deal on buyout after weeks of uncertainties.
Some hours before the announcement was made, Elon tweeted saying that he hoped even his worst critics remained on Twitter.
“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.”
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal also applauded the deal in the release. “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world,” Agrawal said in an accompanying statement. “Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”
Elon Musk made an offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share on Thursday, April 14th. His journey, however was not easy since then.
The day after Musk revealed his bid to purchase Twitter, the company’s board of directors responded with a poison pill, effectively saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
The poison pill was a new “shareholder’s rights plan” that gave certain shareholders the option to buy more stock if Musk or another buyer tried to take control. This indicated that Twitter’s board of directors intended to oppose Musk’s attempt for exclusive ownership of the firm.
Elon Musk was did not feel threatened though. His purchase of Twitter, according to him, was not to make money. – he’s the richest man in the world anyway. Elon sees Twitter as the “de facto town square” and wants the social media company’s algorithm to be open source. Elon attempted to portray the entire takeover endeavor as a struggle to safeguard free speech.
He declined even when the company reacted by offering him a board position, which would have limited him to owning only 15% of the company. Musk revised his Securities and Exchange Commission filing to state that he will not be a spectator in the company’s operations.
Elon Musk demonstrated his seriousness by announcing that he had secured $46.5 billion in financing for his intended bid for Twitter and was considering launching a hostile takeover.
The world’s richest man said he planned to fund the bid with a mix of debt and cash in filings filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley and a group of other lenders are providing Mr. Musk $13 billion in debt financing and another $12.5 billion in loans against his equity in Tesla, the electric carmaker he founded. He is projected to invest around $21 billion in equity.
What does Elon promise to do after acquiring Twitter?
From his tweets, he hopes to;
- Promote free and open speech
- Defeat all spam bots or die trying
- Authenticate all humans and priority to Twitter Blue users
- Have an edit button
- No ads?
This is just what he has openly shared, we will see how all this turns out.
