After months of uncertainty, Elon Musk finally completed the acquisition of Twitter. What will this mean for the future of the platform?
After months of financial drama, the deal between Twitter and the richest man in the World Elon Musk is finally complete. Musk has purchased the company for 44 billion dollars, approximately 54 dollars a share.
Elon Musk had announced he wanted to buy the social media platform early this year. After a long game of tug of war, however, Musk initially withdrew from the deal and was subsequently sued by Twitter. In October, after a predictable U-turn, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX announced he wanted to move on with the acquisition.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
During these uncertain times, Twitter shares plummeted to less than 35 dollars, only to come back after Musk’s change of mind in October. Now, Twitter shares are traded at 53 dollars, a bit less than the value Musk acquired them for.
In any case, Twitter’s days as a public company are counted. On November 8th, every stock of the social media platform will be withdrawn from the New York Stock Exchange, officially becoming a private entity. Its shares will be owned by Musk’s X Holdings.
Elon Musk is currently the World’s richest man. His staggering net worth of over 200 billion dollars makes him one of the wealthiest human beings in history. He managed to reach the top position only recently, when the stocks of Tesla and SpaceX, his two most profitable companies, hiked. With Twitter, he will likely retain the position of CEO and probably leave it to someone else in the long-term.
Why Musk wants to own Twitter
Elon Musk has always been an active user of Twitter, and his ideas about how the platform should be run are less than orthodox. Already the first day as de facto CEO he fired four top executives of the platform.
Specifically, he showed the door to (now ex) CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett and head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde.
It was Gadde that agreed for the controversial decision to ban then President of the United States Donald Trump. At the time, Trump’s account was deemed by Twitter as dangerous for American democracy, following his endorsement of the January 6th assault on the Capitol.
Elon Musk has always been against banning Trump, but as of right now his account is still terminated. Many however think that, with Musk, Twitter will fundamentally change face. “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape... Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world,” Musk said.
He also claimed many times he would wage war against spam and bot accounts. In any case, no plan has been disclosed yet.
How Musk will change Twitter is yet unknown. Many Twitter employees, however, fear for their jobs after Musk’s cut off the executive heads.
