Twitter has a new owner as several outlets like NBC News report that the Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reached a deal to buy the social media platform.
The entrepreneur is buying Twitter and taking it private. Twitter’s board of directors unanimously decided on Musk’s offer to purchase the social media platform for $44 billion.
“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,” Musk said in a statement.
“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.”
According to the New York Times, Musk said last week that he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal.
The Times cites people with knowledge of the situation who it did not identify. It says the two sides are discussing details including a timeline and fees if an agreement were signed and then fell apart.
Commenting about the importance of purchasing Twitter, Musk cited the event as “important to the function of democracy.”
