Elon Musk has reportedly offered to buy Twitter for an eye-watering $41 billion.
As reported by Reuters, the Tesla founder - who last month purchased a 9.2% stake in the social media company (TWTR.N) for $2.89 billion (£2.20bn) - has now offered to purchase Twitter for $41 billion in cash, saying in a letter to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor:
"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."
The billionaire's offer reflects a $54.20 per share price - which was disclosed in a regulatory SEC filing on Thursday (April 14) - and represents a 38% premium to the closing price of Twitter's stock April 1 close.
Referring to his near 10% investment last month, the Tesla CEO added in his letter to Taylor: "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."
Per Refinitiv data, the total deal value was calculated based on 763.58 million outstanding shares.
The news also comes after Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal revealed in a note to his employees that Musk had turned down the opportunity to join Twitter's board of directors.
"Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9 but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board," Agrawal wrote earlier this month, adding: "I believe this is for the best."
Reuters reports that analysts believed Musk's decision not to join the board was based on the fact his board seat would have limited any potential stake to just shy of 15%.
As part of his offer, Musk has said he is not willing to barter and is "not playing the back-and-forth game".
"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 and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it’s not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder," Musk wrote in his letter to the company.
"Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it," he added.
