How much will it cost Elon Musk to buy Twitter?
The world’s richest man has had a huge takeover bid of social media site Twitter be accepted and the eye-watering sum is expected to herald big changes.
Elon Musk, the billionaire who made his money from various outlets after being bankrolled by his family’s diamond mine in South Africa, has finally had his bid for Twitter accepted. The final figure is thought to be in the region of $44 billion.
For the vast majority of people this figure cannot even be quantified, but for Musk it represents just under one-fifth of his estimated wealth, thought to be around $270 billion.
The mogul published a statement on the eve of the deal being accepted, saying he wanted to take Twitter forward to be a free-speech hub. The company has been criticised by conservatives for supposedly being biased against them, a claim echoed by Musk himself.
“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,” Elon Musk said in that statement.
“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,” he added.
“Twitter has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
What is Musk expected to do with Twitter?
Musk has more than 80 million followers on the platform. The billionaire has had a tumultuous relationship in the past with Twitter, facing courts for calling a diver rescuing trapped boys in Thailand as a “pedo” and for allegedly misleading investors with his tweets.
Current CEO Parag Agrawal, who has only been in the job for less than six months, is not expected to survive in the role. In his offer document, Musk told Twitter’s board, “I don’t have confidence in management.”
“Once the deal closes, we don’t know which direction the platform will go,” Agrawal said, according to the Reuters news agency. He could be in line to receive $42 million severance fee is Musk does choose to let go of his services.