Elon Musk has made an offer to purchase Twitter
Image credit: NPR
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has made an offer to buy Twitter, claiming that he is the best person to “unlock” the social media platform’s “amazing potential.”
Mr Musk made the stunning revelation that he would pay $54.20 per share for Twitter, valuing the company at almost $40 billion.
Mr Musk was recently revealed to be Twitter’s largest shareholder after amassing a sizable stake in the company. In early trading, Twitter’s stock climbed 5.3 per cent to $48.32.
According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Musk had text and/or phone conversations with Twitter’s board of directors over the weekend, indicating that he had raised the idea of taking the business private.
According to Twitter, he was offered to join the board, but he declined on Sunday.
Mr Musk wrote in the filing that he was not “playing the back-and-forth game” and that his offer was “a premium price and your shareholders will adore it.”
Twitter said, “The proposal will be carefully reviewed by the board to decide the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the company and all Twitter stockholders.”
Mr Musk was offered a seat on Twitter’s board after it was revealed that he owned a 9.2 per cent investment in the company.
On Monday, Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, stated that Mr Musk’s choice not to take a position on the board of directors was “for the best.”
Mr Musk has previously hinted at some of the changes he wants to see on Twitter.
He proposes lowering the price of the Twitter Blue premium membership service, which was launched last year in Canada and Australia, as well as banning advertising and allowing users to pay the monthly charge using the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
On Twitter, Mr Musk asked his 81 million followers if the company was “dying” and if its headquarters should be transformed into a homeless shelter.