Elon Musk Acquiring Twitter In A Deal Valued At $44 Billion – What’s Next?
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has secured a deal on Monday, agreeing to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, making a total value of approximately $44 billion. This means that Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 per share owned. Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.
“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,” said Mr. Musk. “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.”
In other words, Musk’s main concern about Twitter currently is that the social media app is too restrictive. He plans to use Twitter as a platform that treats content in a more liberal manner, changing direction from content removals and account bans. Musk has also suggested opening up Twitter’s algorithm to public review allowing users to understand, in theory, how it makes decisions.
Such a deal also gave rise to lots of controversies. Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters said, “A sale to Elon Musk without any conditions will pollute the entire information ecosystem by opening the floodgate of hate and lies.” Another major concern expressed by industry watchers, political figures and Twitter employees, is whether Twitter will restore Trump’s account privileges. Trump has reportedly announced that he will not return to the platform even if he is allowed back.
