Elon Musk Might Finally Close The Twitter Deal Before This Weekend
It's been over six months since Elon Musk first offered to buy Twitter, the social media platform he loves to dunk on and also apparently dreams of transforming into a free-speech utopia. Ever since the SEC disclosure of Musk acquiring a fat stake in Twitter became public knowledge, the billionaire has trolled the CEO of Twitter, trashed its bot problem, floated ideas like monetizing tweets, refused to close the deal, and took the company to court. The dramatic saga might finally come to an end this Friday, with Musk signing the acquisition papers and becoming the Lord of Twitter.
According to Bloomberg, Musk has told his banking partners that he intends to close the Twitter deal by this Friday. Led by Morgan Stanley, the group of banking institutions has pledged a handsome credit worth around $13 billion and has reportedly finished drafting the final agreement terms with the Tesla chief. Reuters also claims that Musk's lawyers have sent the necessary paperwork to equity partners that include crypto giant Binance, Oracle, and Sequoia Capital, among others.
To recall, Musk originally planned to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, totaling $44 billion for the company, a price that he has since said is overtly generous and far above the platform's real worth. The acquisition proposal is concluding right on schedule with a Delaware court's October 28 deadline. Interestingly, Musk's friend, rap mogul Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — also bought the controversial social media platform Parler earlier this month.
One platform, a bajillion problems
With Musk's Twitter purchase nearing its completion, the Tesla CEO faces a handful of titanic challenges. Musk reportedly plans to lay off 75% of Twitter's workforce once he is done with the acquisition, a decision that has shaken Twitter from the inside. Employees are reportedly in a state of unrest, but a healthy bunch of them have resigned ever since the Musk drama first began and have landed at other places like Google and Meta, reports Insider.
However, the ambition to accomplish his lofty goals — which include solving the cancerous bot problem, boosting ad revenue, speeding up feature development, and creating a free speech online haven — with just a quarter of the employees is seemingly ambitious. Musk has garnered a reputation as a hard taskmaster and often praises employees who burn the midnight oil, but cultivating that culture at Twitter and reviving its financial fortunes won't come easy.
Plus, achieving the goal of minimizing bot accounts and handling the moderation problem while also loosening the grip on free speech will be a challenge for Musk. It remains to be seen what kind of financial wonders Musk can conjure at the helm of Twitter, and whether the platform can become any better in the coming years. Twitter, on the other hand, has been keen on the buyout and even resorted to legal proceedings to force Musk into honoring his initial agreement.