Tesla CEO Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion

The takeover had been indicated for a long time: Now the Tesla founder Elon Musk has agreed on a purchase price with the online service. Musk also announces changes to the service.

Twitter has dropped opposition to a takeover by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The online service announced on Monday that it had reached a deal with Musk. Twitter will then be taken off the stock market. Musk is expected to pay around $44 billion for the acquisition, according to a company statement. Last week, Twitter’s board of directors tried to prevent a takeover by the richest person in the world.

The purchase negotiations only started on Monday night. Twitter shareholders will therefore receive $54.20 per share – an offer that the Tesla boss had previously described as his “best and last”. Twitter shares rose 6 percent.

The tech entrepreneur announced the first changes to the network in the statement: “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by expanding the product with new features that open source algorithms to increase trust that defeats spam bots and authenticates everyone. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the user community to unlock it.”