Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter.
Highlights
- Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share
- Musk holds 9% of the company's stock, which is the highest
- Twitter board said it will review and take a decision in the best interest of the company
In response to Tesla chief Elon Musk's buyout offer, the Twitter board responded by saying that it will evaluate an "unsolicited, non-binding" offer that is in the best interest of the company.
Elon Musk had offered to buy Twitter for $ 54.20 a share. He added that the social media company must be transformed privately. His offer came 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% 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.
“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.”
The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter. The billionaire revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that he'd been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31. Only Vanguard Group's suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.
At that point, Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company's outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.
Also Read: Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share: Reports
