Twitter accepts Elon Musk’s $44B offer

The board of Twitter Inc. has accepted a $44 billion cash offer to be acquired by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk, who made the shock bid for the microblogging site nearly two weeks ago, said he would unlock Twitter’s “tremendous potential.”

Twitter may announce the $54.20-per-share deal once its board has recommended the transaction to Twitter shareholders. According to Forbes, the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, is negotiating to buy Twitter in a personal capacity and has not involved Tesla in the deal.

Musk, in a statement, said that free speech was the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter was the digital town square where matters critical to the future of humanity were debated.

The all-cash business deal is expected to be completed later this year. Elon Musk secured $25.5 billion of margin loan financing and debt and will provide almost $21 billion in equity to fund the acquisition of Twitter.

A prolific Twitter user, Elon Musk, has said the platform needs to be taken private to grow and become an open platform for free speech.

The multi-billionaire entrepreneur, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has announced he wants to combat trolls on Twitter and proposed changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including banning advertisement and slashing its price.