Elon Musk offers to buy 100% of Twitter

Just when we had heard the last of the Elon Musk/Twitter saga, Elon Musk has come up with a new proposal. The billionaire and CEO of Tesla is offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash. Remember he already has 9.2% of the social media platform which he purchased a couple of days ago, making him the largest shareholder.

Yesterday, April 13, Elon Musk sent a letter disclosing this to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor in a securities filing:

“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% 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 is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

Twitter has extraordinary potential.  I will unlock it.”

He tweeted the SEC filing to his over 81 million followers.

Twitter issued a press release today confirming that “it has received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Elon Musk to acquire all of the Company’s outstanding common stock for $54.20 per share in cash.”

It added that “the Twitter Board of Directors will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders.”

In trading before New York markets opened, Twitter shares jumped as much as 18%

According to Forbes, Elon Musk is currently the world’s richest man with a net worth of $273.6 billion. Valuing Twitter as at about $43 billion, he should be able to close the deal.