Twitter strikes a deal with Tesla boss Elon Musk to buy the company for $44 billion

Billionaire Elon Musk has reached an agreement to acquire Twitter for approximately $44 billion (€41 billion), the company said.

The outspoken Tesla CEO, the world’s wealthiest person, has said he wants to buy Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for "free speech".

He says it needs to be transformed into a private company in order to build trust with users and do better at serving what he calls the "societal imperative" of free speech.