On April 25, Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid for the billionaire to take control of and privatize the social media giant, purchasing the company at $54.20 per share. 

Musk’s accepted bid ends what was a chaotic standoff between the billionaire and Twitter’s board of directors, beginning after Musk initially purchased a 9% stake in the company on April 4 and declined an offer to join the company’s board after being informed a seat would cap his ownership share at just below 14%.

Twitter responded by employing a shareholder rights plan, otherwise known as a ‘poison pill’ strategy—a defensive tactic used by a corporation’s board of directors to prevent a hostile or unsolicited takeover of the company. Enacting the flip-in option of the poison pill strategy, Twitter entitled existing shareholders to acquire shares of the company at a significant discount, ultimately diluting new ownership interest.

In a press release, Twitter said: “The Rights Plan will reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium or without providing the Board sufficient time to make informed judgments and take actions that are in the best interests of shareholders.”

On April 21, in response to Twitter’s employment of the poison pill strategy, Musk announced he had secured $45.6 billion in financing to purchase the company.

Musk intends to take the social media platform private to reform it, with an anticipated focus on content moderation. “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. Twitter has tremendous potential – and I look forward to working with the community of users to unlock it,” he said.

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, who stepped down from his role as CEO in November of 2021, expressed support and optimism for Musk’s takeover, saying, “Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step … In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”

However, there are some who do not share the co-founder’s optimism. Twitter’s current CEO and Dorsey’s successor, Parag Agrawal, believes Twitter’s future under Musk is unclear. “Once the deal closes, we don’t know which direction the platform will go,” he said.

Ideologically contrasting from Twitter’s newest buyer, Agrawal, in an interview with MIT Technology Review on Nov. 2020, then serving as Twitter’s chief technology officer, said: “[Twitter’s] role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation …The kinds of things that we do about this is, focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.”

Critics of Musk’s takeover are concerned his anticipated content moderation reforms could lead to unmonitored and unrestricted use of hate speech and disinformation. In response to critics of his buying Twitter, Musk tweeted, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

An undoubtedly innovative and ambitious individual, the Tesla CEO’s purchase of Twitter is certain to leave an impact on the social media industry.