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Elon Musk completes deal to buy Twitter for $44bn

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Elon Musk

South African-born billionaire businessman, Elon Musk, on Monday completed take over of the microblogging platform, Twitter, in a deal valued at $44 billion.

The deal was completed after a meeting with the board of the microblogging site on Monday.

Following the completion of the deal, Twitter will introduce new features for its users.

Musk initially acquired a 9.1 percent stake in the social media platform in March, but later tendered an offer to the board and demanded to buy out the company’s shareholders in a bid to unlock its potential.

The deal is reportedly worth $44 billion, against the $39.5 billion Twitter recorded as market capitalisation on Monday.

The Tesla founder had secured $46.5 billion from banks to finance the takeover bid.

READ ALSO: Elon Musk’s planned takeover threatens Okonjo-Iweala, 10 others’ positions on Twitter board

In his remark on Twitter after the completion of the deal, Musk said he would introduce new features on the platform, eliminate spambots, and make its algorithms open source to increase trust.

He said: “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.

“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 spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

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