Elon Musk has stepped up the strangest back and forth in tech by offering to buy Twitter outright.
As revealed by a new SEC filing, the Tesla and SpaceX chief is willing to pay $54.20 per share for the social network, which would to a $43.4 billion bid to increase his 9.2% stake into a full 100%.
This is, as Musk himself points out in an email to Twitter’s chairman of the board Bret Taylor, a 54% premium over the day before he began investing in Twitter.
“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,” Musk said. “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.”
Musk states that his bid is his “best and final offer”, and that its rejection would cause him to reconsider his “position as a shareholder”.
This is the latest twist in a saga that started with Musk stealthily acquiring a 9.2% stake in Twitter, thus becoming the largest shareholder in a company he has used and abused in equal measure.
After pushing for an edit button – and seemingly evoking a response from the company – Musk was seemingly set for a seat on the Twitter board. Days later, Musk changed his mind.
Most recently, it emerged that a Twitter investor was suing Elon Musk for failing to declare his share acquisition in good time.
