Most business reporters and experts I've seen put Twitter's real value at about $10 per share the day he bought it. So he overpaid by over $30 per share. With this deal, Twitter has also taken on $13B in debt, which the company needs to pay off. There is no way Twitter isn't going to be losing money for years.

I think Elon Musk had several motives when he first signed the contract to buy Twitter. First, he wanted an excuse to liquidate some of his Tesla stock without tanking the stock price. (He did this shortly after the contract was signed, saying he might need it to finance the Twitter deal, which he was already trying to back out of.) Second, the stock market hadn't tanked yet when he signed the agreement. Third, and most importantly, he was just being his normal impulsive self. What idiot signs an agreement to pay $44B without doing due diligence?

When he finally realized he'd made a mistake, he tried to back out of the contract. But you can't just back out of a legally binding contract, and he could see the writing on the wall. The Delaware chancery court wasn't going to let him out. So he gave in and finally went through with the deal. Now he's trying to make the best out of a very bad situation. But because he's such an impulsive ass, he can't help tanking the company even more.

This is going to be a very expensive lesson. Or not. People as rich and narcissistic as Elon rarely learn from their mistakes.