Now Comes The Hard Part

Twitter Inc. accepted Elon Musk’s bid to take over the company and go private, a deal that would give the world’s richest person control over the social-media network where he is also among its most influential users, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The $44 billion deal marks the close of a dramatic courtship and a change of heart at Twitter, where many executives and board members initially opposedMusk’s takeover approach. The deal has polarized Twitter employees, users and regulators over the power tech giants wield in determining the parameters of discourse on the internet and how those companies enforce their rules.

The two sides worked through the night to hash out a deal in which Musk plans to take Twitter private in a deal that values the company at $54.20 a share.

The takeover, if it goes through, would mark one of the biggest acquisitions of a tech company and will likely affect the direction of social media. Musk will bring a commitment to a more hands-off approach on speech moderation to a company that has struggled to reconcile freewheeling conversations with content that appeals to advertisers.

On Monday, Musk tweeted to indicate that he wants the platform to be a destination for wide-ranging discourse and disagreement.

“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” he wrote.

Musk said after the deal was announced that he wants to make Twitter a better user experience, in part by adding new features and fighting spam. The billionaire, who is also chief executive of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has a record of challenging conventions in disparate industries.

Twitter is facing significant business challenges and has already embarked on a turnaround plan after a fight with activist investor Elliott Management Corp. about two years ago. Twitter said a little over a year ago that it aimed to at least double its revenue to $7.5 billion by the end of 2023 and reach at least 315 million so-called monetizable daily active users at that time.

To reach that latter goal, the company would need to sharply increase its user growth, which has been in the single-digit percentage points for most of the past few years.

At an all-hands employee meeting on Monday afternoon, CEO Parag Agrawal said that there are no layoffs planned and that the company’s priorities aren’t changing before the deal closes, according to a person who heard the remarks. Mr. Agrawal said that once Mr. Musk takes over, “we don’t know what direction the company may go,” the person said.

Agrawal said Musk agreed to convert employee stockholdings to cash once the deal closes and pay them out on the existing vesting schedule, the person said.

Bret Taylor, Twitter’s independent board chairman, said the deal reflects the best outcome for shareholders.

The San Francisco-based social-media company had been expected to rebuff the offer, which Mr. Musk made April 14 without saying how he would pay for it. A day after the unsolicited offer, Twitter adopted a so-called poison pill, designed to make it more difficult for Mr. Musk to reach more than a 15% stake in the company.

Twitter changed its posture after Mr. Musk detailed elements of his financing plan for the takeover. On April 21, he said he had $46.5 billion in funding lined up. Twitter shares rose sharply, and company executives opened the door to negotiations.