Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion on Monday, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the social media platform where he — the world’s richest person — promotes his interests, attacks critics and opines on a wide range of issues to more than 83 million followers.
The outspoken Tesla CEO has said he wanted to own and privatize Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.
Musk said in a joint statement with Twitter that he wants to make the service “better than ever” with new features while getting rid of automated “spam″ accounts and making its algorithms open to the public to increase trust.
“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,” the 50-year-old Musk said, adding hearts, stars and rocket emojis in a tweet that highlighted the statement.
The timeline below outlines all the main bullet points you need to know:
January 31, 2022: The Associated Press reports that regulatory filings showed that the Tesla CEO began buying Twitter shares on January 31 on an “almost daily” basis. Though few took notice, it’s clear Musk had an early interest in building up his stake in Twitter.
March 14, 2022: By March 14, Musk had accumulated an over 5 per cent stake in the company, as per AP.
March 23, 2022: SEC regulators said they have authority to subpoena the Tesla CEO about his tweets and even urged a federal judge not to let the executive get away with tweeting with abandon. Shortly after U.S. regulators urged a judge to monitor Musk’s tweets, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO expressed he was giving serious thought to build the “next Twitter.”
March 24 - April 1, 2022: Musk began criticising Twitter for “failing to adhere to free speech.” “Worried about de facto bias in the Twitter algorithm having a major effect on the public; Twitter algorithm should be open source,” Musk tweeted on March 24.
A day later, in a poll post, Musk asked his followers: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
On March 26, he tweeted, “New platform needed?”
April 4, 2022: Twitter published a note confirming that the SpaceX and Tesla entrepreneur has taken a 9.2% share of the company, working out to around $2.9 billion based on Friday’s (March 4th) share price.
Musk's filing listed him as a passive investor, and yet, shortly after it became public, he started tweeting out business propositions for the social media company.
Musk posted another poll on Twitter asking users to vote on whether they wanted the company to add an edit button that would allow people to change tweets after they've been published. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal urged users to "vote carefully" on the poll. "The consequences of this poll will be important."
By the end of the day, Twitter invited Musk to join the board. Musk signaled that he would sign an agreement stipulating that he could not own more than 14.9% of the company's stock.
April 5, 2022: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Elon Musk was appointed to Twitter’s board in a series of tweets.
April 9, 2022: The day that Musk was set to officially join Twitter's board, Musk informed the company that he would be rejecting its offer. But, Twitter sat on the news for roughly 36 hours while waiting to see whether Musk would change his mind. Twitter's investor relations website listed Musk as a board member throughout the weekend.
During that time, while the public still thought Musk was set to join Twitter's board, Musk tweeted several veiled criticisms and suggestions for the company. Musk asked his followers, "Is Twitter dying?"
April 10, 2022: Twitter CEO Agrawal shared a note on Twitter saying that Musk rejected the company's offer to join its board.
April 14, 2022: The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla said on April 14 that he is willing to pay $54.20 per share to buy 100% of the company in an all-cash offer that values the social network at $43.4 billion.
April 15, 2022: Twitter’s board of directors announced in a press release that the company is adopting a limited-duration shareholder rights plan — a “poison pill” in merger and acquisition lingo. While the company doesn’t name Elon Musk directly, Twitter is clearly trying to prevent the billionaire from buying the social network.
April 21, 2022: Musk explores a tender offer for Twitter, saying he's secured $46.5 in funding. A filing with the SEC shows that he has $25.5 billion in debt financing from Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions, including margin loans backed by his equity stake in Tesla and $21 billion in equity financing from himself.
April 24, 2022: Twitter’s board met on Sunday to discuss Musk’s offer, and the New York Times reports that they then entered into negotiations with Musk early on Monday morning to hammer out additional details, including the timeline for close and what, if any, financial protections Twitter would enjoy were any potential deal to go south post-announcement. Both reports stress that the deal is not yet final and could still fall apart.
April 25, 2022: Elon Musk and Twitter finally seal the $44 billion deal in one of the biggest buyout offers of recent times. The company issued a press release confirming that it was accepting Musk’s offer to take the social network private.
