Elon Musk succeeds in striking $44bn deal to acquire Twitter

Elon Musk has succeeded in his efforts to sign a deal to acquire publicly-listed microblogging platform Twitter with the consideration being about $44 billion.

The acquisition will be undertaken via a fully-owned entity of the American billionaire, who recently purchased a stake of 9.2% in Twitter.

Elon Musk, who is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is offering to pay Twitter’s shareholders $54.2 per share in cash.

Should the takeover succeed, then Twitter will become a privately-owned company.

Elon Musk, commenting on Twitter acquisition, said: “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.”

Elon Musk acquisition of Twitter. Graphic courtesy of mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.

Elon Musk’s previous attempts to bring Twitter into a deal were resisted by the latter, which even adopted a ‘poison pill’ — a limited duration shareholder rights plan to foil his plans.

However, Twitter’s board has given up on it and has approved the proposed takeover unanimously.

Bret Taylor — Twitter’s Independent Board Chair, commenting on Elon Musk acquisition of Twitter, said: “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.”

Ahead of announcing the deal, Elon Musk stated that he has fully secured $25.5bn in fully committed debt and margin loan financing for the acquisition along with an equity commitment of around $21bn.

Elon Musk acquisition of Twitter, which is contingent on the approval of Twitter’s stockholders, regulatory approvals, and other conditions, is likely to close this year.