Done Deal: Twitter Agrees to Sell Itself to Elon Musk

It’s official: Elon Musk will buy Twitter.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO and the social media firm unveiled the deal on Monday, with the company accepting a deal that values it at just over $44 billion.

Once completed, the richest person in the world will own arguably the most influential social platform in the world, though from a business and user standpoint Twitter is significantly smaller than companies like Facebook or TikTok.

Musk said at a conference that he made the offer to buy Twitter because it had “become kind of the de facto town square, so it is just really important that people have the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law.” He added: “This is not a way to make money, my strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization, I don’t care about the economics at all.”

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Now, when the deal closes, he will have to make his admittedly vague ambition a reality and square it with a difficult regulatory environment, not to mention human nature.

The move caps off what has been a volatile and unpredictable few weeks for the company, with the odds of a purchase changing almost daily.

Musk quietly began buying shares in Twitter in January, but didn’t disclose his 9.1 percent stake until early April. Musk, an active user of Twitter (who used the service to solicit and suggest ideas for its future), was offered a seat on the company’s board, though he would turn that offer down, forcing Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal to warn employees of “distractions ahead.”

Sure enough, just a few days later, Musk offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion, telling the company’s board chair Bret Taylor in a text message: “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.” With the offer contingent on Musk securing financing, the company instituted a “poison pill” plan to force negotiations and slow down the hostile takeover effort.

On April 21, Musk made a more formal offer to the company, having secured the financing needed to back up the bid. He also warned that he would consider a tender offer if negotiations didn’t begin.

With the financing secured, Twitter had little excuse not to at least hold direct negotiations with Musk. And those talks ultimately led to a deal.