Twitter has agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk, and the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has stated he will be taking the company private.
Shareholders are expected to receive $54.20 for each share of Twitter stock they own, marking a 38% premium over the stock price.
"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. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it," says Musk.
Elon Musk has over 83 million followers on the platform, and he's been an avid user over the last few years, sharing memes and discussing his company's endeavors. Over the last few days, he's stressed that his goal is to bolster free speech on the platform and unlock Twitter's potential.
While Twitter is smaller than other social media platforms, it has massive influence because it is used by so many public figures and politicians.
Musk recently tweeted, "I hope even my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means."
Overall, Musk says his goal is to make Twitter better 'by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans.'
