The Twitter and Elon Musk saga is far from over — Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed.
The billionaire has said he is willing to pay $54.20 per share to buy 100% of the company. It would be an all-cash offer that values the social network at $43.4 billion.
“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,” Elon Musk wrote in an email to Bret Taylor, Twitter’s chairman of the board (and Salesforce co-chief executive). The email was reproduced in today’s SEC filing. “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,” he added.
In pre-market trading, Twitter shares traded at $50.97 per share, an 11.97% jump from yesterday’s closing price. Twitter shares have been trading below $54.20 since November 4, 2021. In October, Twitter shares were higher than $60.
On April 4, Twitter confirmed that Musk had acquired a significant stake in the social network. By purchasing a 9.2% share of the company, Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder.
The next day, Twitter announced that the entrepreneur best known for his work at Tesla and SpaceX would be joining the board of directors. As a board member, Musk wouldn’t be allowed to own more than 14.9% of the company.
But Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal later announced a major reversal; Musk told the company that he would not join the board. Since then, there has been a ton of speculation about Musk’s next move.
Many people thought the billionaire would start a hostile takeover after renouncing the board seat. Musk is the world’s richest man; according to Forbes, he is currently worth $273.6 billion. Buying Twitter would represent a significant investment for Musk, but it’s feasible.
Musk shared a link to the SEC filing on his Twitter account. “I made an offer,” he said. Twitter released a statement confirming receipt of Musk’s offer and saying its board will “carefully” consider it:
[Twitter] today confirmed 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.
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.
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