UPDATE: Twitter has confirmed it will become a privately held company after accepting Elon Musk's offer of roughly $44 billion.
"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 Musk in a 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. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."
The original story follows.
Twitter and Elon Musk have reportedly reached a deal that would see control of the company ceded to the world's richest man. The Wall Street Journal states that the deal is priced at $44 billion and will be officially announced later today.
According to the report, Twitter and Elon Musk have been in "advanced discussions" with both sides working "through the night to hash out a deal." Musk is said to be offering $54.20 per share, roughly three dollars more than the price per share as of the time of this writing. The deal will be announced after markets close on Monday, if not sooner.
Musk himself seems confident that the deal is close to conclusion, tweeting earlier today that he hopes "that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means." Musk has often used Twitter to share his views on free speech and to lament Twitter's rules which limit speech.
The richest man in the world, Musk began his journey to acquire Twitter earlier this month by polling his 83 million followers on whether he should outright purchase the company. Following the results of that poll, Musk purchased a 9.3% stake and was clearly maneuvering for a potential takeover. Twitter's board tried to stave off the takeover by inviting Musk to join its board of directors, a move that would have limited the billionaire's ability to purchase more Twitter shares. When Musk refused, the board implemented a "poison pill" that would push more shares onto the market if Musk were to attempt a hostile takeover.
A week later, Musk offered Twitter shareholders $43 billion for control of the company--a tempting offer for a company worth just $37 billion. Negotiations have apparently continued for the past two weeks, and rumors began swirling earlier today that an announcement was forthcoming.
A self-described "free speech absolutist," Musk has stated that Twitter's rules restricting speech "fundamentally undermine democracy." Musk tweeted last month that he would not have blocked Russian news channels from broadcasting state propaganda, even following reports of Russian atrocities committed in Ukraine.