At the beginning of April, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he had acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter to become its largest outside shareholder. As a result, Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, announced that Musk would be joining the company’s board, before Musk decided that he would remain an active investor and wouldn’t be joining the board after all.
Now, Musk – who has more than 80 million Twitter followers – has bought Twitter for US $44 billion (AUD $61.3 billion).
The transaction was unanimously approved by Twitter’s 11-member board of directors, which includes Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who will be stepping down from the board in May.
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders,” said Twitter’s independent board chair Bret Taylor in a statement.
Musk has long been a champion for free speech on the platform, and that was the first thing he mentioned speaking after the announcement.
“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 tweeted.
“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.”
The purchase – and Musk’s commitment to free speech – has led to speculation that former US president Donald Trump’s account will be reinstated, however there has been no solid announcement regarding the account.
When Trump’s account was banned from Twitter over allegedly inciting violence in the wake of last year’s US Capitol attack, 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.”
Trump has told Fox News that he would not return to Twitter, and is currently building a rival to Twitter called Truth Social.
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