Elon Musk has completed a $44bn takeover of Twitter, with the world’s richest man tweeting earlier this morning: “the bird is freed.”
The owner of Tesla changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit” as he plans to take the company off the NYSE.
So far there has been no official word from Twitter, [* SEE UPDATE AT END OF ARTICLE] but the New York Stock Exchange stated that the company’s shares will be suspended from trading. Reuters has reported this morning that equity investors had received paperwork for the “financing commitment” from Musk’s legal team.
But what will a takeover by the “free speech absolutist” mean for the social media platform?
In an update last night, he spoke directly to advertisers:
“I also very much believe that advertising when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed, but is right for you.
“For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs.
“Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!”
He added:
“Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.
“To everyone who has partnered with us, I thank you. Let us build something extraordinary together.”
Some of those comments relate to the lengthy takeover saga. Musk became the company’s largest shareholder in April and a deal was reached for the $44bn takeover. At the time, he said he planned to clean up its spam accounts and encourage free speech.
However, a month later the deal seemed to be off, with Musk pointing out that he had concerns about the number of fake accounts, which he said were higher than Twitter had claimed.
By July, he said he was no longer interested in the company at all, so Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold him to the original terms of the deal.
Then, earlier this month, Musk said he would continue with the takeover, providing the court proceedings stopped.
The immediate change at Twitter, according to US media this morning, has been the departure of a number of high profile executives, including CEO, Parag Agrawal; Chair Bret Taylor; CFO, Ned Segal; and legal and policy exec, Vijaya Gadde.
