Elon Musk Is Officially Buying Twitter For $44 Billion

[UPDATE] It is now official. Twitter is selling to Elon Musk.

Twitter said in a press release that it has entered into a "definitive agreement" to sell to Musk for $54.20 per share, which values the deal at around $44 billion. "Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company," the company said.

Twitter's independent board chair Bret Taylor said, "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."

Indeed, Twitter is getting a massive premium in this deal. Musk is paying a 38% premium on Twitter's stock price as of April 1, 2022, which was the final day of trading before Musk revealed his 9% stake in the company.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal added, "Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important."

As for Musk, he said in the news release that free speech "is the bedrock of a functioning democracy," adding that Twitter is the "digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

"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," Musk said. "Twitter has tremendous potential--I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

The original story is below.

Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX and Tesla, could become Twitter's new owner according to The New York Times. An agreement could be announced as soon as Monday--or the deal may still fall apart.

Reportedly, Twitter's board was negotiating with Musk into the early hours of Monday over his unsolicited bid to buy the company. His mid-April bid of $41 billion to "transform" the social media giant as a private company to unlock its "extraordinary potential" has since climbed to $46.5. A Twitter spokesman has declined to comment, though in previous public statements the company has said its board was "continuing to conduct a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders."

Twitter went public in 2013 with an IPO. When Musk bought his 9.2% stake in Twitter this month, the company's share price had its best day in nearly a decade, jumping by more than 27%. Musk backing out of his plan to join Twitter's board might have signaled his intent to try to buy the company, which he is now attempting. That's because as a board member, Musk would have been capped on how much stock he could own. Musk was recently sued about his move to buy Twitter stock, with claims that he saved himself more than $140 million by waiting more than 10 days to disclose his stake in the company.

As Musk said, he might dump his Twitter shares if the board doesn't approve his buyout proposal. Musk said he is "not playing the back-and-forth game" as it relates to his bid to buy Twitter.