Loading player Twitter, one of the most popular social networks in the world, has announced that it will be bought by Elon Musk, a well-known US entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. After trying to thwart the acquisition of the company by passing some extraordinary rules, Twitter's board of directors finally accepted Musk's offer of approximately $ 44 billion ($ 54.20 per share, approx. 41 billion euros) advanced in mid-April.
Twitter said the offer was unanimously accepted by its board of directors, and that the deal should be finalized by 2022.
In a press release Musk said he intends to make Twitter “better than ever” by “improving the product with new features, opening the algorithm, eliminating bots and verifying the identity of all users”.
🚀💫 ♥ ️ Yesss !!! ♥ ️💫🚀 pic.twitter.com/0T9HzUHuh6
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
Before submitting the offer to buy, about ten days ago, Musk had bought just under 10 percent of the shares making him one of the largest shareholders of Twitter (for a few days he had been the main, but was then overtaken by an investment fund). These innovations had generated a lot of attention, because Twitter is one of the most used and relevant social networks in the world and any news in the way it is managed could have enormous effects.
With an estimated net worth of $ 260 billion, Elon Musk is the richest person in the world. His wealth derives in large part from the ownership of Tesla shares, the well-known company that produces electric cars, of which he is the CEO, and from various other financial activities.
In the documents submitted for the purchase of Twitter, the investment bank Morgan Stanley is indicated for the provision of a series of loans for a total of 25.5 billion dollars, with which to finance just over half of the announced operation by Musk. The remaining 19 billion dollars would instead be covered directly by the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, although at the moment it is not clear what intervention on his assets.
In recent weeks, several observers have wondered what consequences Musk's purchase of Twitter would have had, especially from the point of view of freedom of expression and coexistence between users in one of the most popular social networks in the world, without reaching any conclusions shared.
Musk spoke explicitly of the need to make content moderation rules less stringent, which Twitter has tightened up especially in recent years. The Financial Times writes that several US Republicans are hoping, for example, that Musk will allow former President Donald Trump to return to Twitter, from which he was expelled after the attack on the US Congress on January 6, 2021, due to his support for the attackers and of the systematic lies and forcing spread through his profile.
– Read also: Elon Musk and freedom of expression
According to various newspapers and specialized magazines, the mood within the company is not very high. The New York Times wrote that many Twitter employees were disappointed by the company's poor communications during negotiations with Musk. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal and Chief Executive Bret Taylor finally met with employees on Monday afternoon, with the agreement now finalized, reassuring them that their salaries will remain virtually unchanged with the arrival of the new ownership as far as they know. Agrawal and Taylor, adds the New York Times, “have not offered the same reassurance regarding the policies and corporate culture of Twitter”.
