Elon Musk tells potential investors he may take Twitter public again after $44bn deal

The social media company could list within three years

Elon Musk's Twitter profile on a smartphone. The world's richest man may take the company public again. Reuters

Elon Musk may take Twitter public again after he finalises a $44 billion acquisition to buy the social media company, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Mr Musk may list Twitter as soon as three years of buying it, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Mr Musk's deal to buy the social media company is expected to close later this year, pending the approval of Twitter shareholders and regulators.

Not all of Twitter's users, employees or shareholders have welcomed Mr Musk’s plans to buy the company.

Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal tried to mollify employee anger last week during a company-wide meeting, where staff demanded to know how the company planned to handle a mass exodus prompted by Mr Musk, who has repeatedly criticised Twitter's content moderation practices and pitched lenders on slashing board and executive salaries, according to Reuters.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns a stake in Twitter through his Kingdom Holding Company, rejected Mr Musk’s offer last month, saying it did not “come close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects”.

"My goal, assuming everything gets done, is to make Twitter as inclusive as possible and to have as broad a swathe of people on Twitter as possible," Mr Musk said at the Met Gala in his first major public outing since his bid to buy Twitter began.

The world's richest man, who is also the founder and chief executive of Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, sold about $8.5bn worth of his shares in the electric vehicle maker to fund part of his buyout of Twitter.

Last month, Twitter reported a surge in first-quarter net income to $513.3 million, compared to $68m in the same period in 2021, days after it agreed to be sold to Mr Musk.

The company’s net income also included a pre-tax gain of $970m from the sale of MoPub — a platform for promoting and monetising apps — for $1.05bn and income taxes related to the gain of $331m.