Elon Musk tries to buy Twitter for $41BILLION: Tesla CEO offers $54.20 a share and says if his offer is not accepted ‘I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it’
Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $41.39 billion, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday.
Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38 percent premium to the closing price of Twitter’s stock on April 1, the last trading day before the Tesla CEO’s over 9 percent investment in the company was publicly announced.
The outspoken Tesla CEO, known for his social media antics, told Bret Taylor, the Chairman of the Board: ‘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.
‘However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
‘As a result, I am offering to buy 100 percent of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38 percent premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced.
‘My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
‘Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.’
Musk added that his offer was not a ‘threat’, but ‘it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.’
‘And those changes won’t happen without taking the company private.’
Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $41.39 billion, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday
It comes after analysts have speculated that Elon Musk’s roller coaster journey as Twitter’s largest shareholder could be part of a ploy to stage a hostile take-over of the company.
Musk revealed last week that he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder, with a 9.2 percent stake in the company, on March 14.
One day after he disclosed his stake, platform CEO Parag Agrawal announced the Tesla co-founder had been invited to the join the company’s board of directors, a seat he gladly accepted.
By accepting the board seat, Musk was limited in how much of the company’s shares he could own, with a 14.9 percent cap. However, on Sunday Parag announced the SpaceX CEO formally declined his board seat.
Musk, 50, signed the new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Monday indicating he had declined his board seat.
The document stated Musk could ‘express his views’ about Twitter’s policies and services to the board or on social media. He could also purchase additional shares or sell Twitter stock, if he saw fit.
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