UNITED STATE, April 15 – Elon Musk, the Billionaire and Founder of Electric Car Maker Tesla, who earlier this month disclosed he owns a 9.2% stake in Twitter, proposed in a regulatory filing on Thursday to buy all of the company’s outstanding common stock for $54.20 per share.
On Thursday made his intentions with Twitter Inc. official, offering to buy the company at $54.20 per share in cash. So far, the social-media platform has said it would review his offer, which values the company at around $43 billion.
Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter for $43 billion, saying the social media company “needs to be transformed as a private company. Speaking at a TED conference hours after making the offer, Mr. Musk said he isn’t sure he will actually be able to acquire Twitter, adding that his offer isn’t about the economics or making money. Asked if he had funding secured, Mr. Musk said, I have sufficient assets.
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,” he said in the filing. However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form.”
In a statement, Twitter said it has received Musk’s offer and that its board “will carefully review the proposal.” Twitter shares rose 3.6% to $47.49 in early trading. Shares in the social media platform, which was valued at $37 billion prior to Musk’s offer, had declined by roughly a third over the prior year.
