According to sources familiar with the transaction, Twitter and Musk has officially closed on the billionaire’s deal to purchase the firm for $54.20 per share, or approximately $44 billion, on Thursday night, as per reports from WSJ, CNBC and other.
Earlier this year, Musk initially agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion in April, threatened to back out of the deal, then changed his mind again this month and said he would see the deal through.
According to the sources, Musk fired CFO Ned Segal and CEO Parag Agrawal the same evening. Vijaya Gadde, chief legal officer, has also been fired. This week, according to sources, Musk visited the San Francisco office of Twitter, where he met with staff members and had casual conversations with them in the café.
On Friday, there will likely be an all-hands gathering of workers. Musk posted a video carrying a sink when he arrived at the Twitter headquarters earlier this week and tweeted, “Entering Twitter HQ-Let that sink in!”
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
The deal, which will return Twitter to private ownership, expands Mr. Musk’s business empire, which includes Tesla Inc., the world’s most valuable car firm, and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.
Mr. Musk, Twitter’s largest individual shareholder, had stated that he would pay for the acquisition largely with cash and some from co-investors, including $13 billion in debt.
Mr. Musk appeared to be close to acquiring the social media site by Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline. According to The Wall Street Journal, banks began funding the deal. Mr. Musk also updated his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit,” walked inside the social media platform’s San Francisco offices, and gave advertisers a message on Twitter.
According to University of Michigan corporate law professor Erik Gordon, Twitter would move for the Delaware Court of Chancery to drop its lawsuit against Musk over the $44 billion purchase after the new arrangement.
The Delaware Chancery Court judge supervising Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk gave them until Friday, October 28 to settle or face a five-day trial next month. After being told to do things on Twitter and having his private text messages made public, Musk went to the negotiating table.
Mr. Musk’s takeover raises doubts about how he will adjust the platform’s revenue model and content policing. Twitter, like other social media sites, relies primarily on digital advertising and has struggled recently owing to economic instability.
As a result of the acquisition, it will be stuck with billions in debt, which would increase costs for a corporation that has lost money in eight of its last 10 fiscal years.
As per CNBC reports, on Thursday, Musk wrote a message,
A free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences. The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk said in the message. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far-right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.