“I hope even my worst critics stay on Twitter”, Elon Musk messages soon to buy the social network

When a few people learned that he had made the most important technology acquisition in recent years, Elon Musk shared his thoughts on the company’s future on Twitter. Shortly afterwards it was confirmed that he had bought the social network for $ 44 billion.

The richest man in the world, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, thus became the owner of the platform he considered “the digital public square where important issues for the future of mankind are being debated, “according to the text of the announcement.

“Hopefully even my worst critic Stay on Twitter, because that’s it free expression”, He tweeted three hours before the news was confirmed.

Later, when the sale was officially announced, Musk tweeted part of the statement referring to freedom of expression, in which he simply added the word “Yes” along with emoticons of rockets and stars.

Musk said last week he had $ 46.5 billion to make the purchase, thanks to two bank loans from Morgan Stanley and also thanks to his personal fortune, with a contribution of 21,000 million dollars.

He also considered launching a hostile acquisition bid directly by shareholders, to sideline the then reluctant board of directors.

Finally, the purchase ended this same Monday before the market closed.

A weekend of negotiations

According to the press, Twitter’s board of directors met on Sunday to review the billionaire’s proposal, which has already bought more than 9% of the company’s capital.

On Friday, the South African -born businessman met with several shareholders via video call, to defend his purchase offer.

Shortly after entering the group’s capital, the eccentric Tesla founder was invited to join the company’s board of directors, but he declined the offer.

Musk promised to transform the social network into a “platform of free expression worldwide ”, without detailing the changes it intends to apply, except for certain functions such as a button to“ change ”a tweet after it has been posted.

Musk could also look to make Twitter more profitable and increase the number of users. It has already proposed changes to the paid subscription formula for the social network, Twitter Blue.

DD