Elon Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter for $41.39 billion.
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO revealed in a regulatory filing that he launched a takeover bid of Twitter just days after he bought a 9.2 per cent stake in the social media platform.
Musk was subsequently offered a seat on the company’s board but refused to take up the position, instead making his offer to buy the entire company, something he could not have done once a board member.
In a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Wednesday (13.04.22), Musk revealed he offered to buy all Twitter’s shares for $54.20 each – a total of $41.4bn based on 763.58m shares outstanding.
That share offer price would be a 54 percent premium to Twitter’s closing price on 28 January 2022, the day before he started buying up his stake.
Upon the news of the 50-year-old entrepreneur's offer, shares in Twitter jumped 11 per cent in pre-market trading on Thursday (14.04.22) to $50.90.
Musk - who is worth a reputed $265 billion - set out his vision to make Twitter "the platform for free speech around the globe" in a letter to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor.
He said: "I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
"Since making my investment I now realise the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form.
"Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
"My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder," he added.
"This is not a threat, it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made".
Musk - who is a frequent tweeter and has 81.6 million followers - stated he has no "confidence in management" and does not believe he can "drive the necessary change" while the company is still public.
Twitter responded to Musk's offer in a statement confirming it had received the "unsolicited" proposal and confirmed the board will "carefully review" it to "determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders".
