Edit button, here we come. (Maybe.)
It’s official: Elon Musk will buy Twitter for a cool $44 billion. We’ve got the details of this blockbuster deal and what changes could be in store for the social-media platform.
Musk’s Twitter Takeover
Twitter agreed to sell itself for $54.20 a share, roughly $44 billion, in the largest deal to take a company private in at least two decades, the New York Times reports. The agreement ends weeks of speculation, which began after the world’s richest man revealed he had become the company’s largest shareholder and then made an unsolicited bid for the company. Twitter initially parried by employing a so-called “poison pill” provision, which would have made it much more difficult for Musk to take over.
The company had a change of heart when Musk announced that he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing, and decided to open negotiations with the Tesla CEO. The deal has been unanimously approved by Twitter’s board and is expected to close this year.
Elon Musk’s vision for Twitter
The billionaire is an avid Twitter user with more than 83 million followers. He’s also been vocal about what changes he’d like to see made across the platform, which he described Monday as a “digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”
Facing scrutiny over the spread of disinformation and hate speech on the site, Twitter has in recent years moved to increase content moderation. But Musk may unwind that. He has advocated for softening the company’s stance permanently banning users and taking down their previous tweets.
“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” he wrote.
He has also campaigned for an edit button to be added, something many users have requested but critics have warned could unleash chaos on the site. Musk has also said the company should move away from relying on advertising and shift to a subscription model, where users could pay for a premium subscription.
Will Musk unblock Donald Trump?
The former president was permanently banned from the site two days after the Capitol riot, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” But could Musk bring him back to the platform? It’s possible. He said recently in a TED Talk that he thinks the company should be “very cautious with permanent bans” and has been chummy with Trump, thanking him for supporting Tesla’s plans to reopen its factory during the Covid-19 lockdown.
But on Monday, Trump told CNBC he would not make his return to the site, preferring to remain on his own social-media platform Truth Social.
