Elon Musk - latest: Tesla boss ‘will become Twitter CEO when deal is complete’ as billionaires throw cash behind takeover

The billionaire has received $7.1 billion from supporters

Tesla boss Elon Musk has pledged to support free speech and ‘defeat the spam bots’ after Twitter takeover (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk has received $7.1 billion from nearly two dozen investors including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others to fund his purchase of Twitter.

The news comes after the billionaire sold nearly $8.5bn worth of Tesla stock.

Qatar - giving $375,000,000 - and Saudi Arabia will also be financing the deal.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of the board at Kingdom Holding Company and one of Twitter’s largest backers, said he is rolling over his current investment after initially criticising Mr Musk.

Mr Musk will pay $54.20 cash per share for the San Francisco-based company, which will now be taken private before the end of October.

The board announced it had reached a deal with Mr Musk on Monday, and that it represented a 38 per cent premium from Twitter’s closing price on 1 April, the day before the world’s richest person made his move for the company by announcing his nine per cent stake.

Mr Musk will likely make some significant changes to the social media platform, having made several hints in recent months about what his intentions are. It comes after Musk’s friend Dorsey stepped down as CEO and Parag Agrawal took over.

Changes could include a new CEO, worker layoffs and even monetising tweets by charging publishers to embed them, according to some reports.

You can follow all the latest news and developments right here.

Key points

• Mass Twitter deactivations after Musk takeover are ‘organic’
• Twitter announces company will be sold to Tesla titan Elon Musk for $44bn
• Elon Musk unable to escape SEC ‘b******s’

[27 April 2022 15:58 · Anthony Cuthbertson]

Who precisely is Elon Musk?

This is the question asked by Andrew Buncombe, in his latest piece: ‘Will the real Elon Musk please stand up?’

‘Is he the doting family man with seven intriguingly-named children. Or is he the shock-jock blowhard who smokes weed while chatting to Joe Rogan, gets taken to court for making wild allegations that someone is “a pedo guy”, and is charged by the federal financial watchdog for loose words about taking Tesla private, a $40m penalty he later tweeted was “worth it”?’

You can read the full piece here:

[27 April 2022 06:22 · Anthony Cuthbertson]

Trump's Truth Social tops iPhone app download chart after Musk's Twitter deal

Former US president Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social was the most downloaded free iPhone app in the App Store on Tuesday following Tesla chief Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter for $44bn.

Truth Social downloads have reportedly risen to 75,000 for the week of 18 to 25 April.

The relative positions in the download charts of Truth Social and Twitter were noted in a tweet by Musk himself, who presented the information without further comment late on Tuesday:

The figure for Truth Social downloads is up 150 per cent from the week before, according to data from Sensor Tower, a company that monitors mobile apps metrics.

This spike in Truth Social downloads comes after reports that downloads had fallen after a messy launch of the platform.

The former US president’s app has been downloaded roughly 1.4 million times to date since its launch in February.

Read the full story here.

[27 April 2022 05:00 · Graeme Massie]

Will the real Elon Musk please stand up?

ICYMI: Man who taught himself computing at age of 10 may now sit at unprecedented nexus of power and influence, writes Andrew Buncombe.

[27 April 2022 04:15 · Graeme Massie]

Could ElonJet be shut down?

ICYMI: In the wake of Twitter sealing a deal with Elon Musk to sell the social media company to the tech billionaire for approximately $44bn, there’s been a flurry of speculation about how the new owner intends to moderate a platform he’s vowed to take private while also prioritising “free speech”.

One person fearful of what a Musk-ruled Twitter will look like is Jack Sweeney, the teenage coder behind the Twitter bot @ElonJet, an account that tracks the movements of the Tesla titan’s private jet escapades.

Speaking to Insider following Monday’s announcement of the San Francisco-based platform’s sale to Mr Musk, the Florida native and university freshman told the outlet that he was unsure if the SpaceX founder will allow him to keep the bot account alive.

“​​It’s hard to think that he wouldn’t do something,” Mr Sweeney told Insider.

Mr Sweeney’s concerns are likely merited, particularly in the light of what happened last fall between the teen and the new Twitter owner.

In November 2021, Mr Musk reportedly reached out to Mr Sweeney and offered the coder $5,000 to shut down the jet tracking account, arguing that there were security concerns with the information being shared publicly.

[27 April 2022 03:04 · Graeme Massie]

Elon Musk’s Twitter deal raises concerns over concentrated wealth and power online

ICYMI: A deal for the world’s wealthiest person to purchase social media company Twitter for $44bn has raised alarms over the concentration of billionaire power across social media platforms and how they will be used to shape both public policy and the economic interests of the people running them.

Elon Musk’s massive purchase has also revived calls from members of Congress and other critics to demand that US billionaires pay higher taxes, while questioning Mr Musk’s public and self interests in spending that much money to control the platform.

Alex Woodward has all the details.

[27 April 2022 02:05 · Graeme Massie]

Some Republicans fear a Trump return to an Elon Musk-owned Twitter, reports say

ICYMI: While some Republicans took to publicly cheering Elon Musk’s $44bn purchase of Twitter as a major victory for free speech, there were some who viewed it with trepidation, according to reports.

For a series of top GOP insiders told Politico Playbook of their grave concerns about the new Musk-led Twitter becoming a haven to welcome back previously banned accounts, namely Donald Trump.

Johanna Chisholm has the story.

[27 April 2022 01:02 · Graeme Massie]

Who owned Twitter before Elon Musk?

When Elon Musk finally closes his $44bn deal for Twitter this year he will joint ranks of media moguls, that include his rival for title of world’s richest person, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

The Twitter board finally accepted the Tesla boss’s $54.20 per share cash offer for the platform on Monday after intense negotiations, both public and private, and it now has to be ratified by its shareholders.

[27 April 2022 00:35 · Graeme Massie]

What happens to my Twitter stock?

Elon Musk has been given the green light to take over Twitter after the company’s board accepted his cash bid that would value it at around $44bn.

Twitter still remains a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and will remain so until the platform is “delisted.”

More details below.

[27 April 2022 00:03 · Graeme Massie]

Susan Collins says that Trump should get his Twitter back

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine told Huffpost that former president Donald Trump should be allowed to have his Twitter account back.

The remarks come as Tesla magnate Elon Musk announced that he would buy the platform. Many conservatives have expressed hope the sale would mean that the former president would return to the social media platform.

[26 April 2022 23:06 · Graeme Massie]

Elon Musk’s ‘X Holdings’ to complete Twitter purchase by 24 October

A new SEC filing by Twitter reveals that the company will merge with two of Mr Musk’s ‘X Holdings’ companies later this year after the company agreed to sell itself for $44bn.

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