$Twitter (TWTR.US) $The company's board of directors has accepted billionaire Elon Musk's offer to buy and privatize the social media company, it was announced on Monday.

Twitter announced that Musk would buy the company for $54.20 a share in a deal worth about $44 billion. Investors will receive $54.20 a share, 38% higher than the stock's closing price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed his stake in Twitter, the announcement said.

The deal has been unanimously approved by Twitter's board of directors and is expected to be completed in 2022, subject to Twitter shareholder approval, applicable regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, the announcement said. When the deal is completed, Twitter will become a privately held company.

Twitter said Musk had received $25.5 billion in fully committed debt and margin loan financing and provided about $21 billion in equity commitments. The company said the Musk proposal was the best option for the holder.

The price of $54.20 per share was Musk's initial offer, which he called the "best and final" offer.

Twitter also said it would release first-quarter results before trading on April 28 and would not hold a conference call.

Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter and privatize it on the 14th of this month. But soon, his proposal was rejected by Wall Street because it was not clear whether he could come up with the money to complete the deal.

Subsequently, Twitter also adopted a "poison pill" strategy, which is a defensive strategy to prevent Musk from accumulating more company shares.

Last week, Mr Musk updated his proposal, saying he had received a financing commitment of $46.5 billion, putting pressure on Twitter to consider his offer more seriously. Later there were reports that Twitter was reconsidering Musk's offer and was increasingly willing to negotiate with him.