Elon Musk Secures $44 Billion Deal to Take Twitter Private
Elon Musk completes a massive $44 billion acquisition of Twitter after a rapid month-long saga that begins with a passive stake and ends with a buyout. The social media company initially attempts to fend off the world's richest man with a poison pill defense before ultimately accepting his offer.
Elon Musk officially takes over Twitter in a massive $44 billion deal that unfolds over a chaotic month. The saga begins in early April when the Tesla CEO acquires a 9.2% stake in the social media company and briefly secures a board seat before pivoting to a plan to buy the entire platform outright.
To fund this ambitious takeover, Musk relies on financial backing from Morgan Stanley and Bank of America because the world's richest man is relatively cash poor. He plans to liquidate shares from his other major companies, SpaceX and Tesla, to cover the massive cost of the buyout.
Twitter initially resists the aggressive advance by implementing a poison pill defense that makes a hostile takeover more expensive and difficult. Despite these efforts to fend him off, the social network ultimately surrenders and accepts Musk's offer to take the company private.