Elon Musk to buy Twitter in $44 billion deal

The deal, which is able to take the corporate personal, caps off a whirlwind interval by which the Tesla and SpaceX CEO turned one in every of Twitter’s largest shareholders, was provided and turned down a seat on its board and bid to purchase the corporate — all in lower than a month.

The deal, which was unanimously permitted by Twitter’s board, is anticipated to shut this 12 months. It comes after Musk revealed final week he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to accumulate the corporate, an obvious turning level that compelled Twitter’s board to noticeably think about the deal. The board met Sunday to guage Musk’s supply.

“The Twitter Board performed a considerate and complete course of to evaluate Elon’s proposal with a deliberate give attention to worth, certainty, and financing,” Twitter impartial board chair Bret Taylor stated in an announcement, calling the deal ” the most effective path ahead for Twitter’s stockholders.”

Twitter inventory was up almost 6% following the announcement of the deal, hovering round $51.84, simply shy of the supply worth. The deal is pending approval from shareholders and regulators.

In an inner message to workers obtained by CNN, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal stated he would maintain an all-hands assembly with Taylor on Monday afternoon to reply questions in regards to the deal. “I do know this can be a vital change and also you’re probably processing what this implies for you and Twitter’s future,” he stated.

What Musk means for Twitter

Musk is each a high-profile Twitter person and a controversial one. He has greater than 83 million followers on the platform, which he has used over time for all the things from sharing memes and discussing his corporations to insulting politicians, spreading deceptive claims about Covid-19 and making offensive remarks in regards to the transgender group.

Musk has repeatedly burdened in latest days that his objective is to bolster free speech on the platform and work to “unlock” Twitter’s “extraordinary potential.”

In his assertion Monday, Musk stated he needs to “make Twitter higher than ever by enhancing the product with new options, making the algorithms open supply to extend belief, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all people.” Individually, he stated in a tweet Monday that he hopes “even my worst critics stay on Twitter, as a result of that’s what free speech means.”

Nonetheless, some trade consultants fear that Musk’s want totally free speech on Twitter may imply rolling again a few of the platform’s work to curb hate speech, misinformation, harassment and different dangerous content material. Others questioned whether or not Musk would possibly restore former President Donald Trump’s account, which was eliminated early final 12 months for violating Twitter insurance policies towards inciting violence following the Capitol Riot. Such a transfer may have vital ramifications for the upcoming 2024 US presidential election.

Whereas Twitter is smaller than some social media rivals, it has an outsized affect within the on-line and offline worlds as a result of it’s utilized by many politicians, public figures and journalists, and has generally acted as a mannequin for different platforms in learn how to deal with dangerous content material.

“Don’t permit Twitter to turn into a petri dish for hate speech, or falsehoods that subvert our democracy,” Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, stated in an announcement directed at Musk Monday following the deal.

A brand new and unsure period for Twitter

Within the days since Musk’s preliminary bid, many following the corporate puzzled whether or not Twitter would attempt to discover one other purchaser, particularly after the corporate put in place a poison capsule to make it tougher for Musk to accumulate the corporate with out its approval.

However CFRA senior fairness analyst Angelo Zino stated Monday that Twitter’s board extra significantly contemplating Musk’s supply could have come “from the Board’s realization that another bid from a ‘white knight’ could also be troublesome to come back by, particularly following the decline in asset costs from social media corporations in latest weeks/months.”

It is not clear whether or not Agrawal — who took over the CEO function from founder Jack Dorsey in November — will stay within the high job following the takeover. Musk beforehand tweeted a meme evaluating Agrawal to former Soviet chief Joseph Stalin. Musk additionally stated in his supply letter to purchase Twitter that he doesn’t “trust in administration.”

The deal may, nevertheless, put an finish to just about a decade of chaos at Twitter as a public firm, throughout which it has cycled by CEOs, grappled with an activist investor and struggled to ignite development and efficiently monetize its influential person base.

Agrawal stated in Monday’s assertion that “Twitter has a objective and relevance that impacts the complete world,” He added: “Deeply pleased with our groups and impressed by the work that has by no means been extra essential.”

CNN Enterprise tech reporter Clare Duffy might be reached at clare.duffy@cnn.com.