Will he or won’t he? That’s probably the hottest question on Twitter amidst talk of a hostile takeover and poison pill plan in recent days. Well, it looks like Elon Musk has done it. He has finally secured a deal to buy Twitter for US$44 billion.
The world’s richest man is taking over the social media platform where he has 84.4 million followers. And he is taking the company private, offering shareholders $54.20 per share. Twitter’s stock price rose 5.66 percent to US$51.70 at the close of trading yesterday.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a Twitter statement.
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots and authenticating all humans.”
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted that Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. “Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important,” he wrote.
Musk has yet to reveal plans for the social media platfom but freedom of speech is definitely a top priority.
“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” he tweeted.
Entelechy Asia 