Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded Monday night to the news that Twitter’s board of directors unanimously approved a $44 billion definitive agreement to be acquired by Elon Musk by saying that Musk is the “singular solution” that he trusts to fix the company’s problems.
“I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness,” Dorsey said. “The idea and service is all that matters to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.”
“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” he continued. “Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is “maximally trusted and broadly inclusive” is the right one. This is also @paraga’s goal, and why I chose him. Thank you both for getting the company out of an impossible situation. This is the right path…I believe it with all my heart.”
The sale of the company, which Musk purchased for $54.20 per share, is expected to close this year subject to the approval of Twitter’s shareholders and other regulatory approvals.
“Under the terms of the agreement, Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the proposed transaction,” Twitter said in a statement. “The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter.”
The company announced that Musk secured $25.5 billion of fully committed debt and margin loan financing and is providing a $21 billion equity commitment.
Twitter’s board of directors initially appeared poised to do everything in its power, including adopting a poison pill, to stop Musk from buying out the company with his unsolicited $43 billion dollar offer earlier this month.
However, things changed after Musk disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing last week that he had secured more than $46.5 billion in financing to take over the company, including $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, $12.5 billion from other banks, and $21 billion from himself.
Musk has hinted at and in some cases plainly stated changes that will be coming to Twitter if he takes over the company, including, loosening up the platform’s content moderators, making the platform’s algorithms open-sourced, eliminating bots, and authenticating real humans on the platform.
This report has been updated to include additional information.