Elon Musk has succeeded in his bid to acquire Twitter, with a definitive agreement reached yesterday (25 April) between Musk and the Twitter board.
Twitter will be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash, in a transaction valued at approximately $4- billion. Twitter will then become a private company.
Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock when the transaction closes. This is 38% higher than Twitter’s closing price on1 April 2022, which was the last trading day before Musk disclosed he had acquired just over 9% of the company.
Bret Taylor, Twitter’s independent board chair, says: “The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”
Musk comments: “I 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.”
The transaction is subject to the approval of Twitter shareholders, regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, but is expected to close this year.