After several months of negotiation, Elon Musk has bought Twitter for $44 billion on Oct. 28, at $54.20 a share. Musk’s interest in Twitter began in January 2023 when he decided to invest in Twitter, according to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. By mid-March, Musk held 9.2% of Twitter and became the largest shareholder in the company. After Musk became the largest shareholder, he offered to buy the company for $44 billion in April. Musk also attempted to join Twitter’s Board of Directors on April 5, but within five days had decided against this decision, according to ABC News.
Musk says he saw Twitter’s “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” and he thinks “free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.” Yet, he believes Twitter is currently not living up to its potential and it needs to be privatized in order to offer a space for free speech. He also announced on May 10 that if he acquired Twitter, he would rectify the “morally bad decision” to permanently ban Donald Trump from Twitter, as NPR reports.
After a month of negotiating and Musk selling Tesla stock in April and early May, it seemed that things were going to reverse, as Musk raised concerns over “bots” on Twitter making up less than 5% of users, according the New York Post. Musk accused Twitter of violating its contract by not disclosing information about the fake accounts, and then threatened to back out of the deal. According to market analysts consulting ABC News, this was possibly a way for Musk to negotiate for a lower price. Musk’s lawyers insisted that Twitter was “actively resisting and thwarting his information rights (and the company’s corresponding obligations) under the merger agreement.” According to NPR News, Musk moved to terminate his deal with Twitter in July citing the issue of spam accounts as the reason. In response, Twitter moved to sue Musk forcing him to complete the deal. If Musk refused to complete the deal, a $1 billion termination fee would have been in order.
Since July, Musk and Twitter have been engaged in legal battle. It wasn’t until Oct. 4 that Musk stopped trying to terminate the deal and returned to his original offer of $54.20 a share. Musk finally acquired Twitter on Oct 28.
On the very day Musk acquired Twitter, he notified all employees of upcoming layoffs, according to a source for the New York Times. Musk also immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal, the chief financial officer, chief legal officer and a general counsel employee. 3,700 people have already been laid off, according to Bloomberg. Since Oct. 28, many employees have been temporarily blocked badge access and have lost access to company systems. While the number of total layoffs has not been officially released by Twitter, a Slack message suggests there may be 3,738 more layoffs to come. Twitter employees noticed that monthly “Days of Rest” were removed from the company’s calendar. Musk also tweeted that Twitter is losing $4 million per day, and that employees that have been let go have been offered three months severance.
The latest twist in the Musk-Twitter story, reports are circulating about Twitter now asking dozens of fired employees to return to work. Whether these reports of are true, Twitter has not confirmed.
Twitter users can expect the app to change in the near future, as Elon Musk has plans to transform the app, including an $8 subscription that grants any user a blue verification checkmark, according to Shiyin Chen for a Bloomberg article. As CNN Business reports, Musk has also emphasized his desire to make Twitter a stronger platform for free speech and be more lenient with censorship of content. Twitter’s algorithm may become an open source for users to see when a tweet has been emphasized or demoted in their feed.
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