By Emmanuel Nduka
Twitter has agreed to sell off the platform to Tesla CEO, Elon Musk for around $43 billion in cash.
Musk had described the price as his “best and final” offer for the social media company.
The transaction is a $54.20-per-share deal. It was agreed after the Twitter Board met on Monday evening to recommend the transaction to Twitter shareholders.
Musk, the world’s richest person according to Forbes, had been negotiating to buy Twitter whose shares were up 4.5% in pre-market trading in New York at $51.15.
Musk made the buy offer in a personal capacity, as Tesla is not involved in the deal.
Earlier reports has said that Twitter had not been able to secure so far a ‘go-shop’ provision under its agreement with Musk that would allow it to solicit other bids once the deal is signed.
The 50-year-old entrepreneur, who is also CEO of rocket developer SpaceX, had said he wants to combat trolls on Twitter and proposed changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price and banning advertising.
According to Musk, Twitter’s current leadership team is incapable of getting the company’s stock to his offer price on its own.
“The company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form,” Musk said in his offer letter last week.
The deal comes just four days after Musk unveiled a financing package to back the acquisition.
Musk unveiled his intention to buy Twitter on April 14 and take it private via a financing package comprised of equity and debt.
