On the 25th local time, Elon Musk, ceo of Tesla, the world's richest man, reached an agreement with Twitter's board of directors to acquire it at a price of $54.2 per share, with a transaction value of about $44 billion. The deal is expected to close in 2022, and upon completion of the deal, Twitter will become a privately held company.
Musk tweeted on the same day that he hoped the company would continue to provide a platform for people to express different opinions. In addition, Musk also said that he hopes to make Twitter's algorithm public to clarify the specific logic of content recommendation and blocking.
Musk said, "Twitter is a digital speech plaza where matters of great importance to the future of humanity can be discussed." "
The entanglement between Musk and Twitter
Musk has reported in a regulatory filing that he has held about 9 percent of Twitter' stake, becoming its largest shareholder.
In early April, Twitter announced that Musk would become a member of Twitter's board. In response, Musk responded on Twitter that he looked forward to working with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Twitter's board of directors to make significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months.
However, only 5 days later, Agravar announced on his Twitter that Musk decided not to join the Twitter board again.
Musk then launched an acquisition with Twitter, offering to buy 100 percent of its shares and take it private. According to Agence France-Presse, in a document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the 13th local time, Musk made a quotation of $54.2 per share.
According to Musk's proposal, which plans to take Twitter private after acquiring it, he believes Twitter needs to "transform." On the 14th local time, Twitter's stock price rose 13% at one point and fell at the close. Tesla's closing share price plunged 3.66%.
Infographic: Musk Twitter account.
What if Musk buys Twitter World?
Twitter is a social media widely used across the globe, and not only ordinary netizens, but also multinational dignitaries and business tycoons often post their official messages through Twitter. The New York Times even described Twitter as "a tool that plays an important role in the world."
According to Reuters, Musk previously said in his speech that "Twitter needs to be privatized to develop." Admittedly, the "privatization" that Musk is referring to is actually "Musk's privatization." The New York Times also mentioned that Musk's preference is to run Twitter the way he uses Twitter: there are no restrictions.
The Wall Street Journal said Musk wants to make substantive changes to Twitter. The report lists some of Musk's views on improving Twitter's means of operations, for example, Twitter should be more cautious when deciding whether to take down tweets or permanently ban users, and temporary filtering may be a better option.
Musk also suggested adding a Tweet editing feature to fix errors in tweets that have already been tweeted. Earlier this month, he surveyed Twitter users about whether he wanted to add a tweet editing feature, with more than 4 million users voting, with more than 70 percent of respondents saying they wanted to add the feature.
In addition, Musk also suggested making Twitter's algorithm open source, which means that others outside of Twitter will be able to view the source code and can suggest fixes and changes.
Image source: Screenshot of Musk's Twitter account.
In addition to the "vision" of Twitter's operation, on the 18th local time, Musk turned his attention to all the members of Twitter's board of directors, and he shouted on Twitter, "If my bid is successful, (Twitter)'s board salary will be $0, so you can save about $3 million a year."
TRUMP: Account recovery will not use Twitter
As for the whereabouts of former US President Trump's relevant accounts, as of now, Musk has not publicly expressed whether he will restore former President Trump's Twitter accounts after the acquisition of Twitter.
Trump, however, said that even if the Twitter account is restored, it will not use the platform.
After the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021, Twitter immediately banned Trump's account.