Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla, has bought Twitter for $44 billion, the company said in a statement.
"Twitter, Inc. … has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion," the statement said. "Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company."
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon's proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing...The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders," Twitter chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg News reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Twitter’s 11-member board was in the “final stretch” of talks with Musk about his offer to buy the company.
On 13 April, Musk who had bought 9.2 percent shares in Twitter said he was ready to offer $43 billion to take the company private and to “transform” it as a “platform for free speech around the globe”. Among other things, Musk suggested a series of changes on Twitter from relaxing its content restrictions to eradicating fake accounts.
"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...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 has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it," Musk said.
At first, the company was opposed to the idea, with the platform's board of directors initiating a so-called "poison pill" rights issue on 15 April to make it more difficult for Musk to buy the company by diluting his stake. However, later Twitter demonstrated a more favourable approach to the matter and approved of the idea of negotiations after Musk had revealed that he had already secured $43 billion to fund the deal.
According to Forbes, Musk is the world's richest man, with an estimated net worth of $273.6bn mostly due to his shareholding in electric vehicle maker Tesla which he runs.