MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Elon Musk reaches deal to buy over Twitter

Twitter has enormous potential, Musk said

Billionaire Elon Musk Monday agreed to buy over 100% of Twitter for US$44 billion, at a value of US$ 54.20, the company announced in a press release.

“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,” Musk said.

Yesss!!! pic.twitter.com/0T9HzUHuh6

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by Twitter's Board of Directors, is expected to close later this year, subject to shareholder approval. “The Twitter Board undertook a thoughtful and comprehensive process to evaluate Elon's proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty and financing,” said independent board chairman Bret Taylor.

The price agreed upon represents a 38% profit premium over Twitter's value last April 1, the day before Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in the company.

Musk has also said he wanted to make Twitter better than ever by improving the product with new features, making algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating spambots and authenticating all humans. The social media has enormous potential, Musk explained.

Musk said he has US$ 25.5 billion of fully committed debt and margin loan financing and is providing an equity commitment of approximately $21 billion, the company added. Twitter Inc. shares went up 5.5% Monday.

After Twitter banned former US President Donald Trump following last year’s US Capitol attack by his supporters, Musk tweeted: “A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.”

Despite joy among Republicans on the announcement, Trump, who is already developing a social media company to rival Twitter -called Truth Social- has no intention of returning, Fox News reported.