New Delhi, Feb 16 : Elon Musk on Friday said that he acquired Twitter (now called X) for $44 billion to improve the 'civilisational lifespan'.

Twitter in April 2022 announced it will be acquired by Musk for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion.

Upon completion of the transaction in October 2022, Twitter became a privately-held company.

In a fresh post, Musk replied to a follower on X who posted that in the long run, 'I suspect Elon buying Twitter will be the most important thing he ever did'.

'I bought Twitter to improve probable civilisational lifespan,' commented the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who has around 172.7 million followers on X.

Famous author Stephen King replied to Musk: 'Just because you bought it doesn't mean you own it.'

After renaming Twitter to X, Musk had said in a post that the platform made a record in terms of users in 2023, reaching 541 million.

Last December, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said that over 10 million people signed up for X in the same month.

In September, X's traffic dropped from 6.4 billion to 5.8 billion, a loss of 10 per cent, according to new SimilarWeb data.

The social media platform could become profitable in 2024, she had said.

/IANS