Elon Musk acquires Twitter with $44 billion bid for 'absolute freedom of speech'

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has reportedly inked a deal to buy Twitter Inc. for $54.20 per share, weeks after the social media giant adopted Poison Pill to restrict him. According to reports, the sale of 100% stake in the microblogging site has been finalized for a total of US $44 billion. Earlier this month, the Tesla CEO had offered to pay $54.20 per share, which amounts to $43 billion, to buy the platform. 

According to multiple media reports, Musk had been holding talks with the Twitter board in the last few days. In fact, an agreement might be announced over the billionaire's Twitter bid as soon as April 25 or April 26. This announcement comes as a surprise to many especially after Twitter's reluctance to hand over more than 15% stake of the company to Musk. Recently, the company board had used its "poison pill" tactic in order to avoid a hostile takeover. 

Poison pill strategy

The "poison pill" strategy is basically used by big companies wherein they flood the market with extra shares at a discount price, which makes a takeover by an individual or a company difficult. However, Twitter seemed to have changed its stance over the buyout after Musk updated his proposal revealing to have secured $46 billion for purchasing the site, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Musk, however, maintains his stance of taking the social media site private as he believes that it is not being used to its full potential. In his U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, where Musk first made the offer to buy Twitter, he had said, "Twitter has unlimited potential. I will unlock it." What's more, is that the billionaire also believes that Twitter does not prioritise free speech, an aspect crucial for democracies. Meanwhile, Twitter has not commented on the development yet and it remains to be seen how the deal moves forward. 

(Image: AP)