Following a whirlwind few weeks marked by a really public back-and-forth between Musk and Twitter, the corporate mentioned Monday that it had agreed to promote itself to the world’s richest man in a roughly $44 billion deal that can take it personal.

The deal, which is predicted to shut this 12 months, places a brand new highlight on the billionaire’s ever evolving and typically erratic views in direction of Twitter through the years, lots of which he has shared on Twitter itself.

In his practically 13 years on the platform, Twitter has grow to be an essential a part of Musk’s private model. It’s a spot the place he communicates to his greater than 80 million followers about his enterprise ventures, lashes out at individuals he views as detractors, makes market-moving commentary about crypto currencies and shares the occasional meme.

To place the connection between Musk and Twitter in his personal phrases, he quipped in a 2019 tweet: “Some individuals use their hair to specific themselves, I exploit Twitter.”

Musk’s push to purchase Twitter outright notably got here after he declined a seat on the corporate’s board, a transfer some company governance consultants speculated could have been as a result of such a job would have include the expectation that Musk stops tweeting criticisms in regards to the firm.

Making an attempt to get Musk to cease tweeting about corporations, nevertheless, is sort of a prologue to how he ended up in search of to purchase Twitter. Musk’s tweets about Tesla have landed him in sizzling water, a number of instances, with the US Securities and Change Fee. His yearslong feud with the SEC dates again to his now-infamous 2018 tweet stating, “Am contemplating taking Tesla personal at $420. Funding secured.”

The nine-word tweet despatched Tesla inventory surging on the time, however the SEC then accused him of deceptive buyers. Musk and regulators finally reached a deal that included, amongst different provisions, a requirement that Musk acquire pre-approval from different Tesla executives previous to tweeting in regards to the firm. Seemingly ever since, Musk has opined about what he sees as assaults on “free speech.”

A number of days later, on March 26, Musk tweeted that he’s giving “severe thought” to creating his personal social media platform, claiming Twitter doesn’t uphold ideas of free speech. Roughly per week after that, Musk purchased a greater than 9% stake in Twitter and have become the tech large’s largest shareholder. Quickly after, on Monday, Twitter mentioned it had agreed to promote itself to Musk completely.

“The Twitter Board performed a considerate and complete course of to evaluate Elon’s proposal with a deliberate deal with worth, certainty, and financing,” Twitter unbiased board chair Bret Taylor mentioned in a press release asserting the deal, which he described as “the very best path ahead for Twitter’s stockholders.”

Musk, in the meantime, doubled down on his positioning himself as a champion of “free speech.”

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital city sq. the place issues very important to the way forward for humanity are debated,” Musk mentioned in a press release Monday. “Twitter has great potential — I look ahead to working with the corporate and the group of customers to unlock it.”

One among Musk’s first tweets’ particularly about Twitter, posted in 2017, was merely: “I love Twitter.” The tweet obtained a “Identical” reply from then-CEO Jack Dorsey, in addition to a reply from a consumer suggesting he can buy it. “How a lot is it?” Musk tweeted on the time, years earlier than he formally submitted his bid for the corporate.

This 12 months, Musk’s tweets about Twitter markedly shifted to start out airing extra particular grievances about how the platform operates. He attacked the corporate for “spending engineering assets” on creating NFT profile pictures as an alternative of addressing spam accounts. He has taken purpose at Twitter’s algorithm a number of instances, calling for it to be open supply, which means it’s publicly obtainable for anybody to view, rework and use for different functions.

Extra not too long ago, Musk has prompt the stakes are excessive for the platform to bolster free speech. “On condition that Twitter serves because the de facto public city sq., failing to stick to free speech ideas essentially undermines democracy,” he tweeted final month.

And in his last tweet earlier than information broke that Twitter had accepted his takeover bid, Musk continued his chorus, tweeting on Monday morning: “I hope that even my worst critics stay on Twitter, as a result of that’s what free speech means.”