Elon Musk buys Twitter for 44 billion dollars

Discussions between the billionaire Tesla Inc. chief executive officer and Twitter’s board about a takeover at $54.20 per share continued overnight into the early hours of Monday. Shares of Twitter jumped 3.9% to $50.84 as trading got underway in New York.

Twitter started warming up to a potential deal after Musk revealed a financing plan for the unsolicited bid that included backing from Morgan Stanley and other institutions.

"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 in a statement announcing the deal.

"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," he added.

"Twitter has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

Bret Taylor, chair of Twitter's board, said it had full assessed Musk's offer and it was "the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders".

 

Some would prefer another billionaire

Elon Musk is the embodiment of money and power corrupting.

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) April 25, 2022

If (when) Elon Musk buys Twitter, I'm not going anywhere, staying right here.

Someone's gotta hang around to say "fuck Elon Musk," right?

— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) April 25, 2022

elon musk please die already , every time i see ur name in the news i get a yeast infection

— 𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐢𝐧 (@mothercain) April 25, 2022

Elon Musk buying Twitter is the kind of wake up call Congress needs to reform Section 230 of the CDA.

— Grant Stern is boosted! (@grantstern) April 25, 2022

Opinion: Letting Elon Musk buy Twitter would be like handing a toddler a loaded gun https://t.co/TsrzqOmS1P

— The Independent (@Independent) April 25, 2022

Where is everyone planning on going if Walmart Lex Luthor does actually manage to buy Twitter? Mastodon always felt kinda meh imo.

— Marcus Hutchins (@MalwareTechBlog) April 25, 2022

Mastodon is a good enough alternative to Twitter and @tinysubversions already put together this incredibly helpful guide: Run Your Own Social https://t.co/QFtp0WzMwJ https://t.co/JhX4jJZNCl

— joanne mcneil (@jomc) April 25, 2022

With news again that Twitter might be sold to Musk, we'd love to build a community for legislative professionals, journalists, and others interested in the workings of Congress on Mastodon, a Twitter alternative based on open source principles. Anyone with us?

— GovTrack.🇺🇸 (@govtrack) April 25, 2022

When billionaires like Elon Musk justify their motives by using “freedom,” beware. What they actually seek is freedom from accountability.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 24, 2022

Sources: Reuters / Twitter