Twitter jumps 5.7% after the social media giant accepts Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover bid

• Twitter rose more than 5% on Monday after accepting Elon Musk's takeover offer.
• The social media company agreed to be bought for $54.20 a share.

Twitter stock rose more than 5% Monday the social-media company accepted Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover offer to take it private.

The micro-blogging company agreed to be bought for $54.20 a share, a 38% premium to Twitter's closing price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake.

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Musk said in a statement Monday.

"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

Twitter's shares finished 5.66% higher Monday at $51.70, still below Musk's bid price.

The buyout came to fruition in just the last few weeks and saw a flurry of activity over the weekend.

Musk said on April 14 he had offered to buy the company outright for $43 billion, or $54.20 per share, to take it private. Twitter resisted this by adopting a "poison pill approach" that would make his attempt at acquisition more difficult and expensive.

A poison pill shareholder rights plan effectively makes a company a less attractive acquisition target by diluting the value of its shares. But Musk was not put off by this tactic.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO later boosted his bid, and he confirmed in a regulatory filing last week that he has secured several financing commitments to provide about $46.5 billion for a Twitter takeover.

Twitter's 11-member board was negotiating with Musk over his offer to buy the company and take it private into the early hours of Monday morning, the New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter officials met on Sunday to re-examine Musk's offer and reconsider his bid after initially attempting to throw off his attempt.

Musk has been vocal about social media platforms appearing to stifle free speech in his posts to Twitter. But he has run into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission over his tweets, and he settled 2018 charges by the SEC that he had misled investors by tweeting he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420" per share.

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