I made an offer https://t.co/VvreuPMeLu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
Musk, who owns slightly more than 9% of Twitter's stock and is the company's largest shareholder, sent the business a letter on Wednesday containing a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn't already control, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. Musk made an offer of $54.20 per Twitter share.
Although the tycoon provided no details on funding, he dubbed that figure his best and final offer.
In the filing, Musk states, "I invested in Twitter because I believe it has the potential to be the global platform for free speech, and I believe free speech is a fundamental requirement for a functioning democracy." "However, since making my investment, I've come to recognise that the company, in its current form, can neither prosper nor serve this societal necessity." Twitter should be turned into a private firm."
Musk claimed last week that he informed Twitter five days after being invited to join its board of directors that he would not be joining. He didn't say why, but the decision came after a flurry of now-deleted tweets from Musk advocating substantial changes to the firm, including the elimination of adverts — the company's primary source of revenue — and the conversion of its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter. Musk hinted at his thoughts on Twitter by "liking" a post that summarised the events as Musk going from "biggest shareholder for Free Speech" to being "told to play nice and not speak freely."
After Musk tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private for $420 per share, Musk and Tesla agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and have Musk's tweets vetted by a corporate counsel in 2018. Although this did not materialise, Tesla's stock price rose as a result of the tweet. Musk's current snafu with the SEC could be due to his failure to tell regulators of his growing Twitter investment.
Musk has defined himself as a "free speech absolutist" who believes Twitter is not upholding free speech values, an opinion echoed by supporters of Donald Trump and other right-wing politicians whose accounts have been terminated for breaking Twitter content guidelines.
Twitter's stock increased by 11 percent.