Days later, he discussed the future of social media with Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey and explored the possibility of joining Twitter's board of directors with private equity firm Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban. In 2017, in response to a tweet suggesting that he buy Twitter, Inc., Musk replied, 'How much is it?' On March 24, 2022, Musk began tweeting criticisms of Twitter, polling his followers on whether the company adhered to the principle that 'free speech is essential to a functioning democracy'. Since becoming owner, Musk has faced backlash for his handling of the company and account suspensions, including the December 2022 suspensions of ten journalists.Įlon Musk communicated with Dorsey, Agrawal, and Taylor prior to proposing a buyout of Twitter Inc.īusiness magnate Elon Musk published his first tweet on his personal Twitter account in June 2010, and had more than 80 million followers by April 2022. Within the United States, conservatives have largely supported the acquisition, while many liberals and former Twitter employees have voiced concerns about Musk's intentions. Reactions to the buyout were mixed, with praise for Musk's planned reforms and vision for the company, particularly his calls for greater free speech, but criticism over fears of a potential rise in misinformation and disinformation, harassment, and hate speech on the platform.

In July 2023, the Twitter service was rebranded as X. Linda Yaccarino was appointed CEO of X Corp. Hundreds of employees then resigned from the company after Musk issued an ultimatum demanding they commit to 'extremely hardcore' work. Musk has since proposed several reforms to Twitter and laid off half of the company's workforce. Musk promptly fired several top executives, including previous CEO Parag Agrawal.

Twitter was taken private and merged into a new parent company named X Corp. The deal was closed on October 28, with Musk immediately becoming Twitter's new owner and CEO. Weeks before the trial was set to begin, Musk reversed course, announcing that he would move forward with the acquisition. The company filed a lawsuit against Musk in the Delaware Court of Chancery shortly thereafter, with a trial scheduled for the week of October 17. In July, Musk announced his intention to terminate the agreement, asserting that Twitter had breached their agreement by refusing to crack down on spambot accounts. Musk stated that he planned to introduce new features to the platform, make its algorithms open-source, combat spambot accounts, and promote free speech. On April 14, Musk made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company, to which Twitter's board responded with a ' poison pill' strategy to resist a hostile takeover before unanimously accepting Musk's buyout offer of $44 billion on April 25. Twitter invited Musk to join its board of directors, an offer he initially accepted before declining. Musk had begun buying shares of the company in January 2022, becoming its largest shareholder by April with a 9.1 percent ownership stake. on April 14, 2022, and concluded it on October 28, 2022.

Business magnate Elon Musk initiated an acquisition of American social media company Twitter, Inc.

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