Earlier in April, Elon Musk gained the largest percentage shareholder stake of Twitter. But the billionaire declined the offer given of having a seat on the board of directors. Instead, Musk made an offer to fully buyout the company. On Monday, April 25, 2022, the deal has reportedly been closed. What does this mean for the future of Twitter and its millions of active users worldwide? Check out the details revealed so far.
A digital town square
Elon Musk presented these statements as part of filing with the Securities and Exchange Committee:
Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has said he thinks Twitter is not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech. MORE: https://t.co/t42WQdfuW8 pic.twitter.com/2B4Cb1csJl — The Associated Press (@AP) April 25, 2022 Following the news of closing the deal with Twitter’s board, Elon Musk stressed that this acquisition is mainly about freedom of speech and how the social network contributed to it: Meanwhile, Twitter’s independent board chair Bret Taylor released a statement regarding the resolution of Musk’s proposal: Elon Musk’s offer is for $54.20 per share price of Twitter, which comes to around $44 billion in total that shareholders will receive.
Enhancing the user experience
Long before Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk started on the road of acquiring Twitter Inc., he was already one of the most prominent and visible users of the platform. Musk has over 80 million followers on his official Twitter account. On that note, Musk issued a statement regarding his vision on what Twitter can be in the future: The billionaire tech mogul has regularly posted anything from memes to cryptocurrency trends to personal and political point of views. At times, Musk’s tweets have been controversial, particularly during the COVID pandemic and the last U.S. presidential elections.
Twitter users react
Appropriately, the Twitter community has reacted to the news of the buyout. Twitter counts many key public figures such as celebrities, journalists, and politicians among its active user base. The news of Elon Musk’s buyout led to various reactions from these celebs, with equal numbers of positive and negative perspectives:
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) April 25, 2022
— Mark Berman (@markberman) April 25, 2022
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) April 25, 2022
— Phil Arballo (@PhilArballo) April 25, 2022
— Mikey (@MikeDulaimi) April 25, 2022
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 25, 2022
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) April 26, 2022
— George Hahn (@georgehahn) April 26, 2022
I think anonymous accounts shouldn’t be allowed. — Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) April 25, 2022 One particular point of interest is the possibility of reinstating Donald Trump’s Twitter. The former U.S. president was permanently banned on the platform:
Facebook is an aggressive propaganda machine for the far right and the beliefs and ethics of Donald Trump. We CANNOT concede Facebook and Twitter in this war. — Don Winslow (@donwinslow) April 25, 2022
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 25, 2022
More importantly, Donald Trump incited and directed a violent insurrection to overturn an American presidential election. And has never been held accountable. Eyes on the big picture. — Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) April 25, 2022 And of course, Musk himself had something to say, directed at his critics:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
A new era for Twitter
Regardless of which side of the fence one has about Elon Musk and his buyout of Twitter, this is certainly a new era for the popular social media platform. It is certainly going to be one of the biggest tech transactions in recent history. One key change is this would mark the end of Twitter as a public company. Elon Musk has stated he is taking the social networking service private. On the other hand, Musk’s broad plans look promising on the surface. What new technologies and initiatives could Musk implement in the future? Having a direct business interaction with Musk’s Starlink is a likely possibility. Musk will also likely look at the verticals for Twitter, as the company has had difficulties with monetization, something its rivals Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have had more success with. Plus, Musk had earlier posted suggestions for improvements, including a long-requested edit option for existing published tweets. Current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, issued the following statement:
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 25, 2022 It is unclear if Agrawal will be retained in his current position. However, Twitter has had a history of a revolving door of CEOs, as Agrawal himself took over from Jack Dorsey in 2021. Twitter stock (NYSE: TWTR) closed at $51.70 U.S., rising 5.66% following Elon Musk’s deal.
