Elon Musk revealed more of his vision for Twitter on Thursday with a message to advertisers — a sign that his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform is moving forward ahead of a court-ordered Friday deadline to seal the deal.
In a post on Twitter addressed to the platform's advertisers, Musk, who has replaced his Twitter biography with "Chief Twit" and made his location "Twitter HQ," said he wants Twitter to become a global leader in advertising and brand awareness.
“Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise,” he said.
As much as 92% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising sales: In its most recent quarter, Twitter generated $1.08 billion in ads out of a total of $1.18 billion in revenue. The figures missed analysts' expectations, signaling flagging growth for the 16-year-old website.
But Musk said in his post that he is not buying Twitter to "make more money." Instead, he said, he is doing so “because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
He said, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences."
Yet, given Twitter's reliance on ads, Musk addressed how he believes ads should work on the platform. They should be able to "delight, entertain, and inform" users, he said.
“It is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs," Musk said. "Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!”
Musk posted a video to Twitter on Wednesday showing him entering the company's San Francisco headquarters with a sink, accompanied by the text "Let that sink in!"
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that banks Musk had tapped to fund the acquisition had begun turning over cash to an escrow account, another sign that the deal is on track. Once it is completed, it would end months of acrimony during which Musk make an initial bid for the platform, only to reverse course over concerns about the volume of fake and spam accounts. That prompted Twitter to sue Musk, teeing up a court trial that had been set to start this month before Musk suddenly resubmitted his original offer to avert the contest.
A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
