Elon Musk welcomes his ‘worst critics’ to stay on Twitter as platform accepts his $43bn bid

Graeme Massie
·2 min read
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Elon Musk has urged his “worst critics” to stay on Twitter just before the platform’s board said it had accepted the Tesla titan’s $43bn cash offer for the company.

Mr Musk took to Twitter amid reports he could become its owner as early as Monday, and wrote, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

The entrepreneur has made the free speech issue a central one in his attempted takeover of the platform, leaving his critics to suggest that he will allow banned right-wing figures such as Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene back.

Earlier, Mr Musk tweeted a cryptic line of poetry, “And be my love in the rain”, which appears to be the final line from American poet Robert Frost’s poem A Line-storm Song, which observers say was written about the difficulties inherent in love and relationships.

Frost asks the reader, someone he loves, to embrace the storm he has described at the beginning of the poem, and to “be his love in the rain,” according to poemanalysis.com.

The poem is a suggestion that love can be both beautiful and destructive at the same time.

Hours later, Twitter announced that it has agreed to sell itself to Mr Musk in a $54.20-per-share deal once the board recommends it to the company’s shareholders.

Mr Musk will pay $54.20 cash per share for the San Francisco-based company, which will now be taken private after days of intense negotiations between the entrepreneur and the platform’s board.

“Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important,”said Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO.

Mr Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is aiming to buy Twitter and take it private in a personal capacity and the electric vehicle company is not involved at all in the transaction.

The South African-born entrepreneur, who is also CEO of SpaceX, is the world’s richest person with a personal fortune of $259bn as of Monday.