After Takeover, Musk Seeks To Commercialize Twitter
…..May Charge Government, Business Accounts
Fred Omotara, Lagos
Tesla Cheif Executive Officer, Elon Musk has said that commercial and government users’ accounts on Twitter may have to pay a “slight” fee to stay on the platform.
Mr Musk said this on Wednesday, a week after Twitter agreed a definitive deal to sell itself to Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, at approximately $44 billion.
Mr Musk, however, said in a post that the platform will continue to be free for “casual users”.
“Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users,” Mr Musk said in a tweet.
“Some revenue is better than none,” he added.
Musk currently owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, which represents a 9.2 per cent stake in the company, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)13G filing.
On April 14, Mr Musk said he had offered to buy 100 per cent of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash.
Upon completion of Twitter’s sale, the company will become a privately held firm.
It is the biggest social media acquisition, surpassing the $26.2 billion buyouts of Linkedin by Microsoft.
Mr Musk said he wanted to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features