Elon Musk buys out Twitter for $44 billion, plans to take company private
We've long become used to gaming industry buyouts; between Microsoft and Sony's recent acquisitions, and future rumors, it's of little surprise to see a smaller studio scooped up by an infinitely larger one. But over in the tech world, there's been a buyout a little weirder than usual; on Monday, Twitter was bought by the ever-eccentric world's richest man, Elon Musk. The cost of the deal totals a staggering $44 billion--$54.20 per share of stock. Following this, Musk plans to make Twitter a privately-owned company, and the full acquisition is set to take place later in 2022.
In regards to the buyout, Elon Musk stressed that he wants to improve Twitter by adding new features, making the site's algorithms open source, and focusing on "free speech", claiming that the company has a lot of potential. Employees of Twitter expressed frustration at the lack of transparency from the higher-ups within the company about the buyout, and nervousness as they were unsure what would happen to their jobs, as Musk plans to make drastic changes in the future.
"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," said Mr. Musk. "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 spam bots, 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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