It’s Official: Elon Musk Buys Twitter for $45.5 Billion

Elon Musk himself made public his intention to acquire Twitter on April 14, with an offer of $54.20 per share. Now, after several days of speculation, rumors, and much controversy, the tycoon has managed to take control of Twitter, as The New York Times had advanced a few hours ago.

Musk would have been negotiating for several hours with the eleven members of the Twitter board until he ended up reaching an agreement that has now become official. In this way, Elon Musk takes over Twitter in exchange for a figure that will be around 45 billion dollars, according to The Verge.

The acquisition has been made official just a few weeks after Elon Musk decided to take a 9.2% stake in Twitter, a move that caused a 26% increase in the company’s share price. Now, Elon Musk, backed by entities such as Morgan Stanley, has managed to raise enough money to take over the entire bluebird company.

What changes are expected on Twitter from now on?

Before making his intention to acquire Twitter public, Elon Musk had already shared – on his Twitter profile, of course – several ideas with which to try to “revive” the platform. These include news such as the long-awaited “edit tweets” button, the implementation of an open-source algorithm, or a change in focus, which will enhance “freedom of expression” within the platform.

Elon also intends to end spam within the social network and require all “human users” to authenticate.

 

“Freedom of expression is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital plaza where issues vital to the future of humanity are discussed. I also want to make Twitter better than ever, enhancing the product with new features, making open source algorithms to increase trust, defeating spam bots and authenticating all humans. Twitter has huge potential – I’m looking forward to working with the company and the user community to unlock it.”

The purchase, unanimously approved by Twitter’s Board of Directors, is expected to close in 2022. The transaction is now subject to Twitter shareholder approval and regulatory approval.

 

It is not clear how long we will have to wait to see the first changes, but it does not look like the wait to see the first fruits of this transaction will be too long.