Twitter today accepted the nearly $44 billion takeover offer from Elon Musk, one of the biggest-ever leveraged buyouts of a listed company.
Twitter announced the $54.20-per-share deal after a meeting with its shareholders. The deal comes just four days after Musk unveiled a financing package to back the acquisition.
Elon Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist”, has been critical of Twitter’s policies. He has said Twitter needs to be taken private to grow and become a genuine platform for free speech.
The 50-year-old entrepreneur, who is also CEO of rocket developer SpaceX, has said he wants to combat trolls on Twitter and proposed changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price and banning advertising.
The billionaire, a vocal advocate of cryptocurrencies, has also suggested adding dogecoin as a payment option on Twitter.
