Elon Musk has an agreement to acquire Twitter

Billionaire Elon Musk has reached an agreement to acquire Twitter for approximately $44 billion, the company said. The outspoken Tesla CEO has said he wants to buy Twitter because he thinks it's not living up to its potential as a platform for "free speech."

He says it needs to be transformed as a private company in order to build trust with users and do better at serving what he calls the "societal imperative" of free speech. Twitter said it will become a privately held company after the sale is closed.

Musk describes himself as a "free-speech absolutist," although he hasn't been exactly clear what he means by that. He acknowledged that Twitter would have to abide by national laws governing speech in markets around the world.

Musk himself, though, regularly blocks social media users who have criticized him or his company and has used the platform to bully reporters who have written critical articles about him or his company.