Musk vows to improve Twitter after buying platform for $44bn

Twitter’s board yesterday unanimously agreed to sell the social media platform to billionaire Elon Musk for a deal valued at $44 billion.

Stockholders will receive $54.20 a share as part of the deal, a 38 per cent premium on Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1.

“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 Mr Musk, the co-founder of Tesla.

“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.”

Parag Agrawal, the company’s chief executive, said the platform had a purpose and relevance that affected “the entire world”.

He said he was “deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important”.

Twitter shares had increased by more than 4 per cent in pre-market trading yesterday after reports it was set to finalise a deal with Mr Musk.

Twitter shares were up 4.5 per cent in pre-market trading in New York at $51.20.

The company’s stock was trading almost 3.7 per cent up at $50.70 a share at 9.50am New York time.

When Mr Musk first offered to buy 100 per cent of Twitter for about $43 billion, the platform made a move to shield itself from the takeover bid.

Its board adopted a limitedduration shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill” strategy, which would enable the company’s shareholders to buy additional stock.

Mr Musk’s offer came after he complained about excessive censorship and a lack of free speech on the platform.

In response to a poll posted on Twitter by Mr Musk, 70.4 per cent of users said it did not stick to free speech principles.