After months of speculations, several agreements, a few court cases, and gazillion tweets, reports have finally come in that World’s richest Man and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is closing his $44 billion acquisition deal to buy Twitter on Friday. In a tweet on Thursday, Musk said he didn’t buy the firm “to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love”.
Musk further explained why he is interested in acquiring the social media platform adding that he doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape” where anything can be said with no consequences. “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” he said.
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
Musk also changed his Twitter bio to refer to himself as ‘Chief Twit’ and his location as Twitter headquarters based in San Francisco. Musk shared a video of him walking in the lobby area of the Twitter office carrying a sink. The caption says, “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” However, as of now, neither Musk nor the micro-blogging site has made any announcement about whether the deal is closed. The billionaire faces Musk faces a court-ordered deadline to close his $44 billion deal by Friday.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Earlier this month, Elon Musk revived his Twitter deal saying that he would carry forward the original deal that he promised. After initiating and signing the Twitter takeover deal in April, Musk tried to end his contract to acquire the social media platform, alleging that Twitter had misled him about the size of its user base and the prevalence of automated accounts known as bots. When he first revealed plans to buy Twitter, he said he wanted to remove the bot accounts on the platform and preserve it as a venue for free speech.
In its response, Twitter sued him in Delaware Chancery Court, forcing him to go forward with the purchase. A trial had been scheduled to begin on October 17. Following this, just weeks before a court trial was due to start, Musk took a U-turn. If the two parties don’t meet the October 28 deadline, the next step could be a November trial.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that Elon Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three-quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers after he takes over the company. However, on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that he is not planning to cut 75% of the staff.
