DEEP DIVE 05 · THE TOWN SQUARE
The X Acquisition
The most expensive impulse buy in tech history — or a principled stand for free speech. The documented sequence, neutrally told.
The sequence
- January 31, 2022: Musk begins buying Twitter shares.
- April 4, 2022: Disclosure that he owns 9.2% — Twitter’s largest shareholder.
- April 14, 2022: Offers to buy Twitter for $54.20/share — $44 billion — calling it his “best and final” offer.
- April 25, 2022: Twitter’s board accepts.
- May–July 2022: Musk tries to back out, citing spam/bot counts. Twitter sues to enforce the deal (Delaware Chancery Court).
- October 27, 2022: Musk closes the deal — walking into HQ carrying a sink, posting “the bird is freed.”
What changed
- Staff: Roughly half to three-quarters of employees were laid off or resigned in the following months (estimates vary by source and date).
- Verification: Legacy blue checks removed; paid verification (Twitter Blue, later X Premium) introduced.
- Policy: Content-moderation teams cut; previously banned accounts reinstated; Community Notes expanded as the moderation model.
- Rebrand: July 2023 — the bird becomes X; the headquarters sign is famously removed by crane.
- Business: Advertiser departures were widely reported; Musk publicly feuded with advertisers (the November 2023 “go f*** yourself” interview moment at the DealBook Summit).
The stated rationale
His October 27, 2022 letter to advertisers: civilization needs “a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence” — and he didn’t buy it “to make more money” but “to try to help humanity.”
The neutral reading
Supporters see a free-speech rescue of a captured platform; critics see erratic management that destroyed value and trust. In March 2025, xAI acquired X in an all-stock deal (reported: xAI valued at $80B, X at $33B) — implying X’s equity value had fallen well below the $44B purchase price. Both the rationale and the outcome are documented; the judgment is the reader’s.
Source notes
Deal chronology from SEC filings and court records (Delaware Chancery); post-acquisition changes from company announcements and contemporaneous reporting; the 2025 xAI–X deal from financial press reporting. See sources.