Elon Musk's latest challenge: Making Twitter's numbers work

Financially speaking, the billionaire's buyout of the social media network for $44 billion breaks all the usual rules

At the peak of the buyout boom in 2007, private equity firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought the Texas energy giant TXU for $45 billion. It was and remains the largest deal of its kind in American history.

Now, a single billionaire is inching toward that record. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, said this past week that he would pay roughly $44 billion to take Twitter private. If the deal closes, it would become the country’s second-largest buyout on record.

Musk is departing from the traditional private equity playbook by putting up far more of his own money than