Elon Musk takes over Twitter at $54.20 a share or $43 billion in cash

Update: Twitter is now a private company owned by Elon Musk. 

Twitter has agreed to Elon Musk’s $54.20 a share offer, and thus Mr Musk becomes the owner of the California-based social media giant. He has been successful in the hostile takeover of Twitter at the "best and final" offer of $43 billion in cash.

Here is the lowdown of the Musk-Twitter deal —

Elon Musk buys Twitter: How it's going down?

It’s been just days since Elon startled the tech and business world with his bid announcement to buy out Twitter on April 14, 2022. He had offered $54.20 per share or $43 billion in cash to take over the Cali-based company. Although initially, the sceptics were quick to dismiss his lack of cash reserve to get this done, many were not sure to dismiss Musk. 

Later, on April 20, Elon Musk, age 50, declared (through SEC filing) that he has secured the required funds for the purchase of Twitter. He revealed he would be investing up to $21 billion of his own money and the rest sourced from Morgan Stanley.

Then today, a report from Reuters claimed that a potential deal was on the verge of being approved. Twitter execs were apparently in talks since last night which extended till Monday morning. With this news, the Twitter shares were quick to jump 6.2% in pre-market U.S. trading going to as much as $51.98. 

A few hours later at 14:50 ET on April 25, 2022, Twitter announced that it has been acquired by Musk.

The microblogging site’s board has thus finally agreed to Musk’s financing plan that involves contributions from the likes of Morgan Stanley and other institutions. 

Bret Taylor, Twitter's Independent Board Chair, 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."

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

"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," said the company CEO, Parag Agrawal.

As per research firm Equilar, Mr. Agrawal would be paid an estimated $42 million if he gets terminated within 12 months of a change in control at Twitter.

So, there'll be a lot more that could happen in the coming days. We will be keeping a close eye on what's happening at Twitter and will keep you posted.

As for other news, reviews, feature stories, buying guides and everything else tech-related, keep reading Digit.in.

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G. S. Vasan

Vasan is a word weaver and tech junkie who is currently geeking out as a news writer at Digit. View Full Profile