Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to receive ownership of Twitter, a social media network with a higher political and societal significance.
According to a Twitter release, Musk would pay $44 billion, or $54.20 per share, to take the social media business private.
The deal comes less than two weeks after Musk made his initial bid to purchase Twitter, putting the company’s board and management into a panic as they tried to figure out whether Musk was genuine and whether his offer was reasonable.
Musk has promised to “unlock” Twitter’s potential by easing what he considers to be restrictive free speech regulations.
In his Monday declaration, he stated that free expression is the core of a functioning democracy, and that Twitter is the digital town square where things crucial to the future of mankind are debated.
The controversial entrepreneur is a frequent user of Twitter, where he has over 83 million followers and routinely publishes memes, promotes his firms Tesla and SpaceX, and quarrels with critics.
In January, Musk kept collecting Twitter stock.
He announced on April 4 that he had amassed a 9% interest in the firm, earning him the company’s largest individual stakeholder.
Elon Musk began asking for reforms to the platform, such as easing the limits around what users may publish, prohibiting spam bots, and making the platform’s algorithm an open source.
Musk will be able to change the firm and platform as he sees fit if the transaction goes through as planned.
However, many concerns remain a mystery, such as how much time Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, would devote to Twitter, and who will head the social media platform.
“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk said on Monday, before the agreement was announced.
However, other analysts believe that if Musk lowers the content standards, Twitter would become inundated with falsehoods and harmful tweets.
