NEW DELHI: Business magnate and founder of Tesla energy and automative company Elon Musk, has reached an agreement to acquire microblogging social media platform Twitter for approximately US $44 billion.

The announcement was made by Twitter that they have unanimously accepted Musk's which will essentially now make Twitter a private company, once the transaction is completed sometime in 2022. The acquisition will have to now go through pending approval from regulators and shareholders.

Musk has purchased the company at US $54.20 a share in an all-cash deal, the same price named in his initial offer on April 14th, 2022. He had made a proposal to buy Twitter for US $43 billion on April 14, after previously acquiring 9.1% of the company's stock for $2.64 billion, becoming its largest single shareholder.  Twitter had then invited Musk to join their board of directors, which Musk accepted before changing his mind later.

Musk had begun to buy Twitter shares on January 31, 2022. On April 4 he announced that he had acquired 9.1 per cent of its stock for $2.64 billion making him the company's largest shareholder.

Along with the announcement of the deal, Musk also commented, "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated, I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans."

Post announcement, Twitter's CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted, "Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important," Agrawal said. Agarwal said, "Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world."

Musk is an open critic of Twitter's moderation and calls himself a 'free speech absolutist.' He has often said, that it was important for people to have the reality and the perception that they’re able to speak freely within the bounds of the law

Twitter's former CEO and one of its co-founders Jack Dorsey was all praises for the deal and said, "Taking Twitter back from Wall Street is the correct first step and nd Elon is the singular solution I trust."