On October 27, Elon Musk formally acquired the social media company Twitter in a deal that resulted in a legal dispute, verbal sparring, and some immediate firings. Musk paid $54.2 per share to acquire the social media site, putting the deal's overall worth to just under $44 billion.
As part of the agreement, Musk is also taking the business private, delisting its stock and removing it from the ownership of stockholders in the open market.
After being listed on the NYSE in 2013, over 9 years ago, Twitter is no longer a publicly traded business. On Friday, trading in Twitter shares will be suspended, according to the NYSE website. Apart from NYSE, crypto-friendly trading platforms like eToro and Robinhood also delisted Twitter shares from their platform.
Twitter going private might not have come as a big surprise for many, given Musk has floated the idea long before involving it in the deal and has even revealed his intention to take Tesla private in the past.
Taking Twitter public and out of the hands of public shareholders would offer Musk certain regulatory advantages and definitely save him a few million in fines (Musk was fined $40 million for “joking” about taking Tesla private). Being a public company invites heavy scrutiny from regulators, and Musk has had quite an infamous relationship with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Being a private company would also save Twitter some financial public scrutiny since it will no longer be required to make quarterly disclosures about the health of its business.
The $44 billion Twitter acquisition also had a crypto partner in the form of Binance who reportedly contributed $500 million towards the deal. Binance’s $500 million stake in Twitter makes it the fourth biggest contributor to the takeover.