Finally, Elon Musk Announces Buying Twitter in $44bn Deal

World’s richest man, Elon Musk, yesterday announced his formal purchase of the micro-blogging site, Twitter, stressing that he hoped the platform would continue to be a “digital town square” for years to come.

Musk, the Co-founder and Chief Executive of Tesla, estimated to be worth a net of $241 billion as of the first week of October, while making the disclosure on his verified Twitter handle, noted that he did not buy the asset to make money, but to “help humanity”.

The SpaceX boss explained that he made the $44 billion purchase because the traditional media continue to be seriously polarised between two extremes, following the reasoning that that will bring in more money.

“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 in our society.

“In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fuelled and catered to those polarised extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.

“That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognising that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility,” he wrote in the statement.

Earlier this week, Musk had published a video of himself walking into Twitter’s headquarters carrying a sink, raising speculation about his aims for the firm.

In his latest tweet, he set out some of his goals for the company, saying that Twitter must be “warm and welcoming for all”.

The development closes the book on what turned out to be a bitter acquisition, one that almost didn’t happen when Musk threatened to pull out at the last minute.

Musk who now describes himself as the “Chief Twit” had said he felt Twitter wasn’t giving him enough info on bots and spam accounts and that the value of the company might not have been as high as he was willing to pay at first.

According to him, it gave him every legal reason to walk away although Twitter wasn’t budging without a fight.

But he baulked at the purchase just a few weeks later, citing concerns that the number of fake accounts on the platform was higher than Twitter claimed, although Twitter executives denied the accusations, arguing that Musk wanted out because he was worried about the price.

The company eventually filed a lawsuit to hold him to the deal, and Musk revived his takeover plans on the condition that legal proceedings were paused. The deal must be completed by 28 October (today), or he will face trial over the contract.

There’s been a lot of talk about what the new owner might aim to change at Twitter now that he’s in charge.

Recently, there’ve been reports claiming that Musk planned to lay off at least 75 per cent of Twitter’s workforce after bashing a lot of them as left-leaning, although he walked back on it on Wednesday.

“Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk said, noting that the platform must adhere to the laws of the land.