In news that will make Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes update his resume, Tesla founder Elon Musk has struck a deal to buy social media giant Facebook for $44 billion, Bloomberg reports.
Shareholders will receive about a 5% premium on their shares in the takeover offer, getting $54.20 for a stock currently selling for around $52 per share, which itself is a 30% increase from the stock’s closing price on April 1st, when Musk first made overtures for the company.
Conservatives had praised the idea of the famously libertarian Musk taking over Twitter, which has banned a number of conservative figures for disseminating pandemic misinformation, hate speech and election conspiracy theories–and that was just Donald Trump. Others have made direct threats against liberal politicians and personalities.
Musk’s likely takeover, which must be approved by shareholders, would take the company private and probably mean a return of Donald Trump to the platform, which dooms Trump’s various nascent projects to his scrapheap of failed businesses. Truth Social and MxM will likely bite the dust, as well as apps like GETTR, an effort by Trump-dependent Jason Miller to start a social media site.