Insight Bureau: After several speculations, billionaire Elon Musk, on Monday, signed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion and take the company private. The wealthiest man in the world says he wants to buy Twitter because he believes the social media company is not living up to its potential as a platform for “free speech”. Musk, a self-proclaimed “absolutist of free speech,” has been, thus, critical of Twitter’s policies.

Consequently, a Twitter exchange from 2017, between Musk and Dave Smith, has gone viral, where Musk enquired the price of the social media company when he was prompted to buy the same.

Dave Smith, Editor of the Business Insider, shared a screenshot of the conversation between the two from five years back, stating that it continues to haunt him.

The conversation began with the billionaire tweeting that he loved Twitter, to which Smith replied that Musk should buy it. Musk then asked how much the social media company company costs.

Musk also revisited the thread in connection with his recent buyout offer to Twitter by posting an upside-down smiley thereby reminding users of how his casual conversation is now coming true.