Tesla CEO Elon Musk will commit $33.5 billion of his own money to acquire Twitter, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He’s also in discussions with other Twitter shareholders, including founder Jack Dorsey, about retaining their shares of the company, per the filing.
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The new filing indicates the Twitter deal is still going forward, although Musk recently said the deal couldn’t proceed until Twitter verifies how many users on the platform are spam accounts or bots. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said the company’s estimate of spam accounts on the platform is based on multiple internal reviews, and external validation isn’t possible.
In April, Musk agreed to buy Twitter for about $44 billion, or $54.20 per share. The move came after he became Twitter’s largest outside shareholder, then submitted an unsolicited bid to acquire the company.
Although Twitter implemented a “poison pill,” it ultimately agreed to sell to Musk.
Musk said in filings that his interest in Twitter lies in improving the company as a platform for free speech.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
Musk is expected to serve as Twitter’s CEO for a few months after the acquisition is completed, CNBC reported. In addition to Tesla, Musk also serves as the CEO of SpaceX, and co-founded The Boring Company, Neuralink and OpenAI.
It’s unclear when the Twitter acquisition deal is expected to close.
Illustration: Tesla Owners Club Belgium Creative Commons photo
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