Elon Musk's 1st post as Twitter deal was revealed: 'Free speech is bedrock...'

Elon Musk, 50, is quite a prolific user of Twitter and has been teasing the userbase ever since he revealed the intention to buy the social media giant.

World's richest person, Elon Musk, is set to buy social media giant Twitter for USD 44 billion in one of the most closely watched deals in the tech space in recent times. The deal comes after a few hiccups had raised doubts if Musk will be able to see the buyout offer to the end.

Twitter named Elon Musk to the board earlier this month after the Tesla executive disclosed he had acquired a more than nine per cent stake in the company. (File photo) (Reuters )

The 50-year-old tycoon, who is as expected, quite a prolific user of the website, in one of his first tweets as the deal was sealed wrote: "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 spam bots, and authenticating all humans," he added.

Twitter has "immense potential," he underlined, stressing that: "I look forward to working with the community of users to unlock it."

Just hours before he had urged: "I hope my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means."

Twitter is set to become a private company as it enters a definitive agreement "to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion," according to a statement.

The deal is expected to be closed by the end of this year, news agency Reuters has reported, and it would be "business as usual" till then Twitter Inc. chief executive officer Parag Agrawal was quoted as saying in the report, underlining that there would be "no job cuts" till then.

The staff, expectedly, is said to be living in a state of uncertainty for weeks after Musk first revealed the intention to buy the tech giant.