Twitter announced Monday that it had reached a roughly $44 billion deal with Elon Musk who is purchasing the company with plans to take it private, according to Reuters. Twitter’s board voted unanimously in favor of the agreement after conducting what board chair Bret Taylor described as “a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing.” Taylor also referred to the acquisition as “the best path forward” for the company’s stockholders.

Twitter’s decision came as somewhat of a surprise in light of its initial aversion to the bid. Musk himself had even expressed skepticism that the deal would go through, according to Bloomberg.

The billionaire entrepreneur was quick to share news of the win with his 85.5 million Twitter followers.

“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 tweeted. “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.”

Pending approval from shareholders and regulators, the deal is expected to close later this year. Once all is said and done, the world’s richest man will head one of the most influential global social media platforms – the implications of which remain to be seen.