On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk Walked Into Twitter Headquarters Carrying a Sink — and Officially Owned the Company

After months of legal threats and public back-and-forth, the world's richest man closed a $44 billion deal that would remake one of the internet's most influential platforms.

By the time Elon Musk arrived at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on October 27, 2022, the deal he'd spent six chaotic months trying to escape was finally, irreversibly his. Carrying a porcelain sink through the lobby, he posted a video captioned 'let that sink in,' a wink that instantly went viral even as lawyers, employees, and shareholders scrambled to process what had just happened.

Let That Sink In

The acquisition capped an extraordinary saga that began in April 2022, when Musk revealed a 9.2% stake in Twitter before offering to buy the entire company for $54.20 a share. He later tried to back out, citing concerns about bot accounts, triggering a lawsuit from Twitter's board that threatened to drag him into a Delaware courtroom. Facing a trial he was widely expected to lose, Musk abruptly reversed course in October and agreed to close the deal on his original terms. By the evening of October 27, the transaction was finalized, and Musk confirmed via Twitter itself that he now controlled the platform outright, ending its run as a publicly traded company after 16 years.

Within hours, Musk fired top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, and within days he began reshaping the company's policies, workforce, and verification system, moves that would ripple through media, politics, and advertising for years to come. The sink stunt, absurd on its surface, doubled as a quiet signal: a platform once defined by 140-character restraint now belonged to a man famous for saying whatever came to mind, whenever he pleased.