Elon Musk has agreed to buy Twitter Inc. in a deal valued at about $44 billion, moving the world’s richest man a step closer to taking control of the social-media platform.
Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 per share in cash, a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his roughly 9% stake in the company.
Shares of Twitter, which were halted when the deal was announced, rose 5.9% to $51.80 after news of the agreement.
Mr. Musk reaffirmed his push to change Twitter’s attitude on content moderation in the press release announcing the deal. “Free expression is the foundation of a healthy democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where important issues affecting humanity’s future are argued,” he stated.
Other future improvements he promised include “opening up the algorithms to increase trust, combating spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”
