Twitter’s board has accepted a buyout offer from billionaire Elon Musk, who will be taking the company private.
Negotiations over the deal, which had appeared on shaky ground last week, moved forward over the weekend after Musk provided shareholders with solid financing details of his offer.
Twitter started discussing the finer details of Musk’s proposal to buy the company at a price of $54.20, and today has announced its acceptance of the offer.
The agreement sees Twitter return to private ownership, having been run as a public company since its 2013 initial public offering.
In a joint statement with Twitter Musk said that he wants to make the service “better than ever”, pledging to eliminate automated “spam” accounts and protect free speech.
“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.
Critics of the billionaire are concerned that his takeover of the social media platform will lead to their voices being silenced. Despite his free speech rhetoric, they point to the fact that Musk has repeatedly blocked those that disagree with him on his personal Twitter account.
After an initial halt in trading whilst the news was announced, Twitter stock closed up by almost 6% for the day.