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• Twitter shares were up 5.85% after the announcement
Elon Musk will be purchasing Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) for an agreed value of $44 billion after the two sides worked through the night to hash out the details of the deal.
Musk purchased the company at $54.20 a share, the same price named in his initial offer on April 14th. The company’s 11-member board met with Musk to discuss his offer on Monday.
The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter's closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter. But Twitter’s shares traded higher than Musk’s bid for much of last year.
Twitter shares were up 5.85% after the announcement in New York at $51.79.
Musk’s negotiations are strictly based on a personal capacity and do not involve Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) at all.
In an SEC filing, Musk said he would be committing $33.5 billion of his own money, including $21 billion of equity and $12.5 billion of margin loans from Morgan Stanley against some of his Tesla shares, to finance the transaction.
Twitter plans to release its first quarter fiscal year 2022 results before market open on April 28, 2022.
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” in a recent interview at a TED conference. He said that he sees Twitter as the “de facto town square.”
"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," said Mr. Musk.
He has proposed changes for the platform including softening its stance on content moderation, creating an edit feature for tweets, making Twitter’s algorithm open source—which would allow people outside the company to view it and suggest changes—and relying less on advertising, among other ideas.
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