Musk Seals $44 Billion Deal Even He Wasn’t Sure Would Succeed

Even Elon Musk was skeptical that he’d win. “I’m not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it,” Musk said in an interview at a TED conference on April 14.

The world’s richest person proved the naysayers, including himself, wrong Monday when he clinched a deal to buy Twitter Inc. for about $44 billion, using one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals in history to take private a 16-year-old social networking platform that has become a hub of public discourse and a flashpoint in the debate over online free speech.

Investors will receive $54.20 for each Twitter share ...