

On April 25, Twitter and Musk agreed on one of the biggest buyout offers of recent times, valued at around $44 billion to take the social network private by the end of 2022.
Discussions over the deal, which looks uncertain during last week, had accelerated after the world's richest person showed shareholders his wallet, ahem financing details of his offer and pressured the social media company to go with the offer at the proposed $54.20 per share price.
The deal has ended Twitter's run as a public company since its 2013 initial public offering.
"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. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” Musk said in his first tweet after acquiring Twitter.
Here’s a look at the timeline of what happened when:
January 31: Musk starts building his stake on Twitter on an “almost daily” basis
March 14: He accumulated more than 5 per cent stake
March 23: SEC regulators urged a federal judge not to let Musk get away with his tweets
Musk also hinted at building the “next Twitter.”
March 24: Musk began criticising Twitter, on Twitter
He tweeted, “New platform needed?”
April 4: Musk’s stake becomes public, and is invited to join Twitter’s board
Twitter confirms Musk holds a 9.2 per cent stake, worth around $2.9 billion
He posted a poll on Twitter asking users to vote on whether they wanted the company to add an edit button. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal urged users to "vote carefully”.
By the end of the day, Twitter invited Musk to join the board.
April 5: Agrawal announced that Musk was appointed to Twitter’s board in a series of tweets.
April 9: Musk rejects the board seat. Musk also tweeted, "Is Twitter dying?”
April 10: Agrawal publicly shares that Musk has rejected to join the company’s board.
April 11: Musk files an amended disclosure with SEC that he can now purchase as many shares as he wants and no longer has to act in the Twitter shareholders’ interest.
April 14: Musk offers to pay $54.20 per share to buy 100 per cent of Twitter in an all-cash deal.
April 15: Twitter, in a press release, announced to adopt a ‘poison pill,’ without revealing Elon Musk’s name to prevent the billionaire from buying the social platform.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, in a tweet, also acknowledged that Twitter, as a public company, has always been for sale.
April 17: Musk tweets “Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.”
April 21: Musk said that he's secured $46.5 in funding. In a filing with the SEC, he shows to have $25.5 billion in debt financing from Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions backed by his Tesla's equity stake, and another $21 billion in equity financing from himself.
April 24: Twitter’s board holds discussions with Musk, and started negotiations to hammer out additional details once he presented details of his financing.
April 25: Elon Musk and Twitter, both agree to seal the deal with his original offer of $54.20 a share. The transaction, one of the biggest buyouts offer of recent times, is valued at around $44 billion to take the social network private by the end 2022.
Musk tweeted that he will prioritise free speech on the site, open-source its algorithms, eliminate spam and add new features.
Copyright©2025 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today