The microblogging site Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $44 billion, the company announced in a press release today.
“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 Musk in a statement included with the release. “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 CEO Parag Agrawal also applauded the deal in the release. “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world,” Agrawal said in an accompanying statement. “Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”
Musk laid out his plan for funding the deal in an SEC filing on Thursday, which includes $25.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in personal equity.
Musk originally offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share on April 14th. The offer followed Musk’s disclosure of acquiring a 9.2 percent stake, a move that made him Twitter’s largest individual shareholder at the time.
