“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” Musk said in a letter to Twitter’s board on Wednesday, which was made public in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s April 1 close, the last trading day before the Tesla (TSLA.O) chief executive’s stake of more than 9% in the social media platform was made public.
The billionaire rejected an offer to join Twitter’s board this week after disclosing his stake, a move which analysts said signaled his intention to take over the company as a board seat would have limited his stake to just under 15%. read more
“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 said in his letter to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor.
Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist, has been critical of the social media platform and its policies, and recently ran a poll on Twitter asking users if they believed it adheres to the principle of free speech.
