The world’s richest man, ELON MUSK has on Monday struck a deal to buy Twitter for 44 billion dollars, capping a saga complete with hostile takeover threats before delivering him personal control of one of the most influential social media platform. 

Twitter allegedly served former US president DONALD TRUMP before the platform banned him, and Musk a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist” has said he wants to reform what he sees as the platform’s over-zealous content moderation.

Twitter said the publicly traded firm will now become a private company owned by MUSK, who negotiated a purchase price of 54.20 dollar per-share.

MUSK last week lined up around 46.5 billion dollars in financing to make the purchase happen.

He complained of overzealous moderation on the platform, bought a nine-percent stake in Twitter earlier in April, then offered to buy the whole company outright, citing a mission of preserving free speech.

MUSK’S efforts have raised hopes about the commercial potential of Twitter, which has struggled to achieve profitable growth despite its influential spot in culture and politics.