Elon Musk Proposes Twitter Buyout

Credit: Unsplash

Musk wants to buy Twitter for $41.39 billion.

Okay, let’s recap the timeline real quick: last week, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bought a large, controlling stake in Twitter. Following that, Twitter announced they would make Musk a member of their board of directors, and he was on board at first, but then he backed down. We caught up? Good, because things just got weirder.

Last night, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk extended a formal offer to buy Twitter, lock stock and barrel. He would buy all of the company’s shares at $54.20 a pop, a total value of roughly $41.39 billion, and take the company private. Not only is that a lot of money in general, it’s a 38% premium over Twitter’s stock value as of April 1.

“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 said in a letter addressed to Twitter chairperson Bret Taylor (and interestingly, not to its CEO, Parag Agrawal). “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.”

“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”

Twitter has confirmed that they’ve received Musk’s offer and will be reviewing it carefully “to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders.”

Gilbert Gottfried Dead at 67

North Korean Hackers Allegedly Responsible for Crypto Hack