Billionaire Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter

The news of the massive acquisition immediately became a hot topic of discussion. Buyer is the richest billionaire in the world owning a net worth of more than 270 billion USD. And Twitter, born in 2006, is one of the platforms social network largest and most influential in the world today with hundreds of millions of user accounts.

Shocking deal

The deal has been approved by Twitter’s board of directors and is expected to close this year. Accordingly, billionaire Musk will pay $54.2 per share of Twitter, the same as his initial offer to Twitter. The deal to buy Twitter is worth up to $ 44 billion, according to Bloomberg. Before that, Mr. Musk bought and held 9% shares of this social network, equivalent to $ 2.9 billion.

“Twitter conducted a comprehensive process to evaluate Mr. Elon’s proposal with a focus on value, certainty and finance,” said Bret Taylor, Twitter’s chairman of the board of directors. The deal is “the best way forward for Twitter shareholders.”

The world’s richest billionaire, Elon Musk REUTERS

Musk’s assurances to the Twitter board that he would raise a huge amount of money to buy the company is seen as an important turning point that forced the social network’s board to seriously consider his offer. The wind has changed, even though in mid-April, Twitter adopted a “poison pill” strategy to limit the ability of billionaire Musk to increase shares, even blocking individuals from acquiring the company. The “poison pill” then wanted to dilute the shares of anyone who was accumulating more than 15% of the company’s shares by selling more shares to other shareholders at an attractive discount.

I don’t buy Twitter to make money… I do it for the future of civilization, not for economic reasons.

Elon Musk

By agreeing to sell to billionaire Musk, Twitter will go private, and put an end to weeks of turmoil and speculation. The transaction in this transaction will be in cash. According to information from US news agencies, Mr. Musk will raise personal cash, borrow loans from banks and take out a mortgage on his Tesla shares.

Why did Mr. Musk buy Twitter?

The world’s richest billionaire’s attempt to take over Twitter’s social network is not because of economic problems. Mr. Musk stated that he wanted to “unlock” the great potential of Twitter. At the TED conference in mid-April, he said: “I think it’s very important to have a comprehensive foundation for freedom of expression. Twitter is becoming a digital plaza where issues important to the future of humanity are debated and where people can freely express their views within the bounds of the law.”

The American billionaire also emphasized: “I didn’t buy Twitter to make money… My strong intuitive sense that having a community platform that is trusted and broad-based is extremely important. I do it for the future of civilization, not for the sake of economics.” In sharing about this social network acquisition plan, Mr. Musk also said he wants to make Twitter “better than ever”.

Expect many changes

When officially owning Twitter, Mr. Musk is expected to make big changes to this social network in the future. First of all, the view related to freedom of speech, which may be handled by Mr. Musk, changes some policy content management and moderation, as well as decisions regarding permanent user account bans.

Mr. Musk once stated that comments or topics that are still in the gray area (that are not breaking the law) should not be deleted from the social network Twitter. This statement quickly became the subject of controversy when Twitter is currently banning content related to violence and hurt, as well as strict regulations to prevent violence. fight against spreading fake news about Covid-19.

The US press quoted experts as expressing concern that the relaxation of regulations could lead to great impacts on the community. Although it doesn’t have as many users as Facebook, Twitter is said to have great influence and is a place chosen by many politicians and high-profile figures to express their views, publicize policies, even Create a discussion forum.

The next change is said to be in the features and algorithms of Twitter today, including editing tweets. However, what worries users and experts more is the privacy and safety of user data. Currently, there is no information or policy from Mr. Musk’s side regarding this issue. Experts say that Musk personally owns Twitter, which means he has more control over “sensitive” user data than companies he runs like Tesla or SpaceX.