Elon Musk, Tesla Chief Executive who is also the world’s richest man, has finally won the fight to take over influential social network, Twitter for $44 billion.
With this deal, the Tesla boss is now officially in charge of the Twitter microblog with over 217 million users, worldwide.
Twitter’s initial reluctance to accept the offer appeared to fade after Musk confirmed a funding package for the deal and shareholders warmed to it.
Musk had signalled that Twitter would be overhauled under his leadership. He had said that Twitter would experience changes in content moderation, describing himself as a “free speech absolutist”.
The deal finally came in after a dramatic few weeks of speculation about Twitter’s future, triggered by Musk’s emergence as the platform’s largest single shareholder on 4th April.
He then declared a $43 billion takeover bid 10 days later, which prompted Twitter’s board to signal its displeasure at his overtures by adopting a so-called “poison pill” defence 24 hours thereafter.
Apparently, the initial position of Twitter’s board had to give way after Musk drew up a $46.5 billion funding package for the bid, including $21 billion of his own money. According to reports, both shareholders and the Twitter board began to take the offer seriously once finance were put in place.
Born Elon Reeve Musk FRS, the new Twitter owner is an entrepreneur, investor, and business magnate. He is the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; early-stage investor, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.
