Tesla chief Elon Musk has launched a takeover bid for Twitter, offering to buy 100 percent of its stock and take it private, according to a stock exchange filing.
According to AFP, Musk offered $54.20 a share, which values the social media firm at $43.4 billion, in a filing dated Wednesday, April 13, with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk’s latest move toward Twitter comes just days after he turned down a seat on the board following his acquisition of a 9.2 percent stake in the microblogging platform.
“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,” Musk said in his filing.
“However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form,” he said.
“Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company. As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter.”
Musk, Twitter’s biggest shareholder, said his “offer is my best and final offer” and he would reconsider his position as a shareholder if it was rejected.
“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” he said.
Currently, the world’s richest man and with more than 80 million followers on the microblogging platform, Musk last week disclosed the purchase of 73.5 million shares or 9.2 percent of Twitter’s common stock. His announcement sent Twitter shares soaring more than 25 percent.
He was offered a seat on the board but turned it down over the weekend.
Musk’s move comes after he tweeted on Saturday, asking whether the social media network was “dying” and calling out users such as singer Justin Bieber, who are highly followed but rarely post.
In other weekend tweets, Musk posted joke polls on whether to drop the “w” from Twitter’s name and on converting its San Francisco headquarters to a homeless shelter “since no one shows up anyway.”
He also suggested removing ads, Twitter’s main source of revenue.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur is a frequent Twitter user, regularly mixing in inflammatory and controversial statements about issues or other public figures with remarks that are basically business-focused.
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