Elon Musk has made a public offer to buy 100 percent of Twitter stock and transform it into a private company, in what the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO says will unlock the company’s potential to be “the platform for free speech around the globe.”
Musk, who became Twitter’s largest shareholder with a 9.2 percent purchase of shares over the last few months, made a public offer to buy 100 percent of the company at $54.20 a share, an 18 percent premium over Twitter’s closing price yesterday.
BERLIN, GERMANY DECEMBER 01: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses on the red carpet of the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)
At Musk’s quoted price, the proposed purchase of Twitter would come to $43 billion in total.
In his publicly disclosed communication to the chairman of Twitter’s board, which can be read in full here, Musk said promoting free speech around the world was the motivation behind his offer.
Musk said he did not believe Twitter could reach its potential for free speech as a publicly owned company, saying “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
Via Seeking Alpha:
Bret Taylor
Chairman of the Board,
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.
/s/ Elon Musk
Elon Musk
Twitter previously offered Musk a seat on Twitter’s board in return for a guarantee that the billionaire would not buy more than 14.9 percent of shares in the company. 15 percent is a crucial threshold that gives shareholders more legal rights in some jurisdictions.
On March 25, Elon Musk conducted a poll on Twitter asking followers if they believed the platform “rigorously adhered” to the principle of free speech, which he said was “essential to a functioning democracy.”
Over 2 million Twitter users voted in the poll, with 70 percent saying they did not believe the platform adhered to free speech. Prominent conservatives also responded to the poll by urging Musk to buy the platform.
SEC filings show that at the time of the poll, Musk had already purchased his 9.2 percent share in Twitter. The billionaire acquired his shares beginning in January and reaching more than nine percent on 14 March, 11 days before his Twitter poll.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.