Elon Musk Offers To Buy Twitter

Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors.

Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9 percent of its stock and is the company's biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn't already own.

Musk offered US$54.20 per share of Twitter's stock, a 38 percent premium to the closing price on April 1, the last trading day before his investment in the company was made public.

The bid values Twitter at US$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,” Musk says in the filing.

“However, since making my investment I now realise the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

Shares of Twitter jumped nearly 12 percent in pre-market trading. (AP/Reuters)