After being a prolific user on the social media platform Twitter since 2010, billionaire Elon Musk has decided to buy the company for a whopping $44 billion and a stock price of $54.20 a share. The world’s richest man has been buying Twitter stock already and is Twitter’s single largest shareholder. The deal, which has been unanimously approved by Twitter’s board, is expected to close this year once everything that needs to be approved is completed.

Recent accusations have come out saying Musk allegedly exposed himself to a flight attendant back in 2018 on a private jet. The allegations say that the company, SpaceX, paid off the flight attendant $250,000 to keep quiet. While Musk has denied all allegations about this, his purchase of Twitter might have to take a back seat for a while. 

The $44 billion price that Musk and Twitter agreed upon might actually be way overpriced to the estimated value of Twitter. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in an interview that he believes Twitter to actually be worth $30 to $35 billion, which is way under what Musk and Twitter agreed upon. Ives then goes on to say when you’re the richest person in the world you can pretty much do whatever you want. 

The deal is on hold for another reason as well. As ongoing stock market volatility wipes millions in market cap from tech companies, Musk has said he is putting the deal on hold until he gets more clarity on how many fake accounts exist on Twitter. People who are close to the situation say Musk could be using this as a tactic to lower the price of $54 per share.

Musk has released little of his plan for what he is going to do when the purchase of Twitter is official. Through Twitter posts, he has said that he wants to promote free speech on the app and open up its algorithm to increase transparency. He hasn’t said what exactly he will change on the app, but he has said that there will be new features and changes he calls “de facto town square.”

Until the deal is official Twitter will remain a publicly traded company and people can continue to buy and sell the stock. Once the purchase is official the company will become private, which could put current shareholders of the company in an awkward situation. The majority of shareholders will receive an automatic payout with the money deposited directly into the account that was used to purchase the stock, but others could get the opportunity to continue being a shareholder in the privatized company.