Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has bought the micro-blogging and social networking service, Twitter, for $44 billion marking one of the biggest deals in the tech world.
Twitter announced on Monday that it accepted Tesla CEO’s offer to take the 16-year-old social networking platform private for the offer which Musk stated earlier as his ‘best and final offer’. This biggest leveraged buyout deal in history ends Twitter’s course as a public company since 2013.
As per the official statement of the company, investors will receive $54.20 for each Twitter share they own which is 38% more than the stock’s close on April 1.
Musk started gathering a stake of about 9% in January. By March, he stepped up his criticism against the platform with regard to biased algorithms, cluttered feeds, and automated junk posts. He rejected Twitter’s invitation to join its board, and on April 14 he offered to take Twitter private.
What to Expect Under Elon Musk’s Leadership
Elon Musk has propagated many user-friendly tweaks to the platform focusing on making it a digital public square promoting free speech.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest person according to a tally by Forbes, expressed his lack of confidence in Twitter’s management in a security filing on April 14. Self-described as a “free speech absolutist”, Musk has been an avid critic of the undue moderation on online platforms. He has clearly stated that Twitter’s economies do not attract him at all. He sees the fabulous potential of the platform concerning free speech, open-source algorithms, and other nonfinancial features.
His announcement on the purchase conforms to his conviction: “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.” He fervently debated in support of the right of offensive tweets to exist. He said, “If it’s a gray area, let the tweet exist.” According to Musk, Twitter needs to be taken private to mature and become an honest platform for free speech.
Musk is also in favor of making Twitter’s algorithms open source. He stated that the software that determines what people see and how widely content spreads on Twitter should be exposed and should be placed on GitHub. “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 spambots, and authenticating all humans,” the Tesla founder added. In the past, he expressed the need to have an “Edit Button’ on Twitter, and later Twitter has confirmed that it has started working on integrating an Edit Button on its platform.
Experts are expecting global upshots for years to come, when one of Twitter’s most high-volume users with more than 83 million followers, makes it at the helm of the company. When Twitter becomes private, Musk can work on the service without the snooping eyes of investors, regulators, and others which makes the public response a mix of enthusiasm, fear, and humor. Experts worry that by relaxing the rules on Twitter, he might be opening the doors to exploiters who are craving to spread fabricated stories and flat-out lies about political events, government officials, and other relevant matters with regard to public health and safety.
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