Twitter confirms sale of company to Elon Musk for $44 billion

Updated 10.10pm

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, struck a deal Monday to buy Twitter for $44 billion.

The sale was a dramatic shift for the board, which had originally manoeuvred to block Musk from taking the social media network private.

Twitter famously served as a megaphone for former US president Donald Trump before the platform banned him, and Musk - a self-proclaimed "free-speech absolutist" - has said he wants to reform what he sees as the platform's over-zealous content moderation.

"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 released by Twitter. 

"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."

The publicly traded firm will now become a private company owned by Musk, who negotiated a purchase price of $54.20 per-share, Twitter said.

"Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important,"...