Mon 25 April 2022:
Elon Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur, has agreed to buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion, using one of the world’s largest leveraged buyout deals to take private a 16-year-old social networking platform that has become a focal point of public debate and a flashpoint in the debate over online free speech.
The announcement follows, what were reported to be, extensive discussions between Musk and Twitter’s board starting on Sunday that stretched into Monday.
The additional $1bn price tag is understood to reflect the purchase of additional shares revealed by Twitter.
The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on 1 April, which was the last trading day before Musk disclosed his 9% stake.
The deal means Twitter is now on course to be taken private, ending its run on the stock market which began in 2013.
Musk, who has more than 83 million followers on Twitter, began amassing a 9 percent stake in the company in January. By March, he had increased his criticism of Twitter, claiming that its algorithms are prejudiced and that its feeds are clogged with artificial rubbish posts.
He also claimed that bots were inflating Twitter’s user growth. He offered to take Twitter private on April 14 after rejecting an invitation to join the company’s board of directors, saying he’d make the platform a stronghold of free speech and dropping other hints about the changes he’d make as owner.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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