According to a stock exchange filing, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has filed a hostile bid for Twitter, offering to buy all of the company’s stock and take it private.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, April 13, Musk offered $54.20 per share, valuing the social media company at $43.4 billion dollars.
Musk’s newest move towards Twitter comes just days after he declined a position on the microblogging platform’s board of directors following his purchase of a 9.2 percent interest in the company.
“I invested in Twitter because I believe it has the potential to become a global forum for free speech, and I believe free speech is a societal requirement for a functioning democracy,” Musk wrote in his filing.
“However, since making my investment, I have come to realize that in its current shape, the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal need,” he stated.
“Twitter should be privatized. As a result, I’m offering to buy 100% of Twitter in cash for $54.20 per share, a 54% premium over the day before I started investing in Twitter.”
Musk, the company’s largest stakeholder, stated that his “offer is my best and final offer” and that if it is rejected, he will reevaluate his status as a shareholder.
“Twitter holds a lot of promise. He said, “I’ll open it.”
Musk, who is currently the world’s richest man and has more than 80 million Twitter followers, announced last week that he had purchased 73.5 million shares — or about 5% of the company — for $73.5 million.
Musk, who is currently the world’s richest man and has more than 80 million Twitter followers, announced last week that he had purchased 73.5 million shares of Twitter’s common stock, or 9.2 percent of the company. Twitter’s stock soared more than 25% after he made his announcement.
He was offered a position on the board, but he declined over the weekend.
Musk’s move comes after he posted on Saturday, asking if Twitter was “dying” and criticizing users like musician Justin Bieber, who have a large following but rarely post.
“Most of these ‘top’ accounts tweet rarely and post very little material,” the Tesla CEO wrote with a list of the ten most popular profiles, which includes himself at number eight with 81 million followers.
He enquired, “Is Twitter doomed?”
Musk also joked about dropping the “w” from Twitter’s name and turning the company’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter “because no one shows there anyhow” in other weekend tweets.
He also proposed that Twitter’s primary source of revenue, advertisements, be removed.
The wealthy internet tycoon is a prolific Twitter user, frequently blending heated and contentious statements about issues or other public figures with lighthearted or business-related remarks.
He’s also had several run-ins with federal securities regulators, who slammed him on social media when a rumored attempt to take Tesla private in 2018 fell through.
