Twitter has accepted a buyout offer from Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk, leading to a day of frenzied speculation over one question: how is Musk going to change Twitter? Musk’s stated plans are a series of features and principles that he may or may not be serious about pursuing, but they demonstrate a potentially conflicting series of goals and changes whose mechanics have been outlined very little — if at all.
The deal to buy Twitter is an all-cash one for Musk and once the transaction will be fully complete, it will become a private company. It is said that this offer was “unanimously” accepted by Twitter’s board of directors and is expected to close this year.
As part of the deal, Elon Musk has secured $25.5 billion of fully committed debt and margin loan financing and has provided around $21.0 billion in equity commitment.
Free speech is something Elon Musk even pointed out in his offer filing saying,
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form.“
The new Twitter CEO, Parag Agarwal says,
“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.