Faith Nyasuguta
On Thursday, Elon Musk took aim at Twitter with a $43 billion cash offer saying the social media giant needs to be taken to private ownership to grow and become a platform for free speech.
“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” Musk, who is already the company’s second-largest shareholder, said via a letter to Twitter’s board on Wednesday. The offer was publicised in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
Currently, Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38 percent premium to Twitter’s April 1 close, the last trading day before his 9.1 percent stake in the social media platform was announced.
This week, Musk rejected an offer to join Twitter’s board after disclosing his stake, a move which analysts said signalled his takeover intentions as a board seat would have limited his shareholding to just under 15 percent.
He further told Twitter that the $43b was his best and final offer and noted that he would reconsider his investment if the board rejects it.
“Since making my investment I now realise the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” Musk said in his letter to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor.
Dubbing himself a free-speech absolutist, Musk has been critical of the social media platform and its policies, with the most recent being running a poll on Twitter asking users if they believed it adheres to the principle of free speech.
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