Today it looks like Musk is making good on one of the biggest of his musings, as he is using his social media platform to tease and tease out various ideas about his business interests and life in general. The social media platform has accepted Musk's offer to acquire the publicly-traded company at $54.20/share.
The company issued a press release moments after the news broke that it was accepting Musk's offer to take the social network private.
The independent board chair of the company said that the proposal was assessed with a deliberate focus on value, certainty and financing.
In the press release, Musk said that free speech is key to the future of the social network, though most of his ideas for how to improve it were already done.
Musk said that free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy and that the digital town square is where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.
I want to make it better by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, and authenticating all humans. I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.
The news comes after it was reported that it was entertaining the offer, contrary to earlier statements about the poison pill it would prefer over Musk acquiring it.
This is not a done deal and there is the possibility of others coming in with a higher offer. It's a sign that the board is on board with the idea and that it's setting up the site for a big acquisition by Musk.
The acquisition dance started less than a month ago, when Musk made a lot of pointed comments about social networks and what it was not doing well.
A seat on the board was pulled away. Musk was sued by shareholders for manipulating the share price.
And Musk? Musk said that he would prefer to buy the whole platform. That was on April 14.
The poison pill made waves in the world of corporate tech news after the board baulked.
Suddenly everyone started to take him seriously after Musk spelled out how he would finance such a deal. Money talks.
Last night, the leaks began to trickle out about the deal.
The news is bound to upset a lot of people, and Musk has a tendency to polarize, so it's basically a given.
It will be interesting to see what that spells out about the business of social media. It will be worth watching to figure out what Musk's intentions are. Moguls buying up media properties is not new, but is the next step up in the same trajectory that includes yachts and other icons.
It's likely that Musk will be approaching this as more than an investors play or a purely financial play, because he has been a power user of the social network for a long time. He has ideas. You have to admit that he is smart even if you don't like him. He may have a plan to turn it into a profitable business. Or, he may have already decided that he can make more money using the social network as a tool for juicing other interests, which is, for all intents and purposes, the only thing we have proof of him using it so far.
If he has his way, he will have a way to follow them whichever way he wants, as long as he pleases.
We will update this post as we learn more.
A complete timeline of the Elon Musk-Twitter saga
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