Elon Musk Buys Twitter For $44B

Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $44 billion, the company announced in a press release today. Musk purchased the company at $54.20 a share, the same price named in his initial offer on April 14th.

“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 included with the release. “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.”

Read More: Musk Has $46.5B In Funding For Twitter Bid

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal also applauded the deal in the release. “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world,” Agrawal said in an accompanying statement. “Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

Musk laid out his plan for funding the deal in an SEC filing on Friday, which includes $25 billion in loans and $22 billion in personal equity. Analysts believe the loans could cost Twitter as much as $1 billion a year in service costs, or roughly 20 percent of the company’s annual revenue.

The South African billionaire made his first foray into Twitter only weeks ago, when he purchased a 9% stake that sent the mini-blogging social media’s stock value soaring to $49.34 per share in premarket trading, a 26% rise. Musk has been critical of Twitter’s policies, arguing that the company doesn’t adhere to free speech principles.