New York, USA (CNN) – Twitter announced on Monday that it had agreed to sell the company to businessman Elon Musk in a deal estimated at $44 billion.
The deal ends a news storm that began less than a month ago when the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX became one of Twitter’s largest shareholders, was offered a seat on Twitter’s board of directors but turned it down, and then offered to buy the entire company.
Under the terms of the deal, shareholders will receive $54.20 for each Twitter share they own, matching Musk’s original offer and representing a 38% premium to the share price the day before Musk disclosed his stake in the company.
The deal comes after Musk revealed last week that he had raised $46.5 billion to fund the acquisition of the company. Twitter’s board of directors met on Sunday to evaluate Musk’s offer.
“I hope even my worst critics on Twitter will remain, because that’s what freedom of speech is,” Musk said on Twitter, Monday, before the company announced its approval of the deal.
The deal will put the world’s richest man in charge of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms. Musk has repeatedly stressed in recent days that his goal is to advance freedom of expression on the platform and work to “unlock” Twitter’s extraordinary potential.