Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter for about $ 44 billion on Monday, promising a light touch on police content on the platform, where he promotes his interests, attacks critics and social and economic critics in front of more than 83 million followers.
The outspoken CEO of Tesla, who is also the richest man in the world, said he wanted to buy and privatize Twitter because he believed it was not meeting its potential as a platform for free speech.
Musk said in a joint statement with Twitter that he wanted to make the service “better than ever” with new features, such as removing automated spam bots and opening its algorithms to the public to increase trust.
“Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital city square where issues vital to the future of humanity are discussed,” he said.
The deal was cemented approximately two weeks after the billionaire first revealed a 9% stake in the platform. Musk said last week that he had secured $ 46.5 billion in funding to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal.
Twitter announced that the deal was approved unanimously by the board of directors. The 11-member board includes Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who plans to step down in May. Twitter said the deal is expected to close sometime this year and is subject to approval by Twitter shareholders and regulators.
Shares of Twitter Inc. rose 6% on Monday to $ 52 per share. On April 14, Musk announced an offer to buy the social media platform for $ 54.20 per share. Although stocks have risen sharply since Musk made his offer, they are well below the $ 77-a-share high that reached in February 2021.
Musk described himself as an “absolutist of free speech,” but he is also known to block or ignore other Twitter users who doubt or disagree with him.
In recent weeks, he has voiced a number of proposed changes to the company, from easing content restrictions – such as rules that suspend former President Donald Trump’s account – to removing the platform from fake and automated accounts and repealing its ad-based revenue model.
Asked during a recent TED lecture whether there were any restrictions on his notion of “freedom of speech”, Musk said Twitter or any forum was “obviously bound by the laws of the country in which he works.” So obviously there are some restrictions on free speech in the US and, of course, Twitter will have to follow those rules.
However, he also said he would be “very reluctant” to delete things and would generally be cautious about permanent bans.
It’s not going to be perfect, Musk added, “but I think we really want the perception and reality that speech is as free as possible.”
Initially, Twitter introduced an anti-swallowing measure known as a poison pill that can make swallowing attempts prohibitively expensive. But the board decided to negotiate after Musk updated his proposal last week to show he had secured funding, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While Twitter’s over 200 million user base remains much smaller than that of competitors such as Facebook and TikTok, the service is popular with celebrities, world leaders, journalists and intellectuals. Musk himself is a prolific Twitter follower who rivals several pop stars in the ranks of the most popular accounts.
Last week, he said in documents submitted to US securities regulators that the money would come from Morgan Stanley and other banks, some of which were secured by his huge stake in Tesla.
Musk is the richest man in the world, according to Forbes, with a fortune of nearly 279 billion dollars. But much of his money is tied to shares in Tesla – he owns about 17 percent of the electric car company, according to FactSet, which is valued at more than $ 1 trillion – and SpaceX, his private space company. It is unclear how much money Musk has.
Musk began making his fortune in 1999 when he sold Zip2, an online directory of mapping and business, to Compaq for $ 307 million. He is using his stake to create what will become PayPal, an Internet service that bypasses banks and allows consumers to pay directly to businesses. It was sold on eBay for $ 1.5 billion in 2002.
That same year, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, after finding that cost constraints limited NASA’s interplanetary travel. The company eventually developed cost-effective reusable missiles.
In 2004, Musk was courted to invest in Tesla, then a startup trying to build an electric car. He eventually became CEO and led the company to astronomical success as the world’s most valuable automaker and the largest seller of electric vehicles.
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Crisher reported from Detroit. O’Brien announced from Providence, RI AP business writer Kelvin Chan from London announced.
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