Twitter accepts $44bn takeover offer from Elon Musk
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Twitter has agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, in a $44bn (€41bn) deal.
The deal puts the Tesla chief executive in charge of a company with 217 million users and an influential role in shaping the political and media agenda on both sides of the Atlantic.
Twitter’s initial reluctance to accept a transaction appeared to fade after Mr Musk confirmed a funding package for the deal and shareholders warmed to it.
Mr Musk has signalled that Twitter will be overhauled under his leadership, including changes in content moderation, having described himself as a “free speech absolutist”.
The deal comes after a dramatic few weeks of speculation about Twitter’s future, triggered by Mr Musk’s emergence as the platform’s largest single shareholder on April 4.
He then declared a $43bn takeover bid on April 14, which prompted Twitter’s board to signal its displeasure at his overtures by adopting a so-called poison pill defence 24 hours later.
However, the apparent opposition of Twitter’s board faded after Mr Musk drew up a $46.5bn funding package for the bid, including $21bn of his own money. According to reports, both shareholders and the Twitter board began to take the offer seriously once finance had been put in place.
The deal is not expected to face serious scrutiny from US competition authorities because Mr Musk’s major business interests – an electric car company, the SpaceX rocket business and tunnelling firm the Boring Company – do not compete with Twitter.
However, the deal is likely to draw comment from politicians and campaigning bodies given Twitter’s influence as an information source and Mr Musk’s stance on free speech.
Twitter said it will become a privately held company after the sale is closed.
“Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world,” CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet.
“Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”
In a recent TED interview, Mr Musk said he would like to see Twitter err on the side of allowing speech instead of moderating it.
He said he would be “very reluctant” to delete tweets and would generally be cautious about permanent bans. He also acknowledged that Twitter would have to abide by national laws governing speech in markets around the world.
Mr Musk himself, though, regularly blocks social media users who have criticised him or his company and has used the platform to bully reporters who have written critical articles about him or his company.
Twitter’s board at first enacted an anti-takeover measure known as a poison pill that could have made a takeover attempt prohibitively expensive.
But when Mr Musk outlined the financial commitments he had lined up to back his offer of $46.5bn — and no other bidders emerged — the board opened negotiations with him.