This article was published on April 14, 2022

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter outright for $41B, days after rejecting seat on board

Musk pledged to "unlock Twitter's extraordinary potential"


Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter outright for $41B, days after rejecting seat on board

Elon Musk has offered to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 a share — about $41 billion — saying the platform needs to go private to thrive and serve free speech.

My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” Musk wrote in a letter sent to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor on April 13.

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

Musk’s bid arrived days after Twitter said he’d rejected an offer to join the company’s board, which was made after the tycoon bought a 9.2% stake in the business.

The Tesla CEO’s increasing interest in the social network has won support from free speech advocates, but Twitter employees and Musk critics have raised concerns about his plans.

In his letter to Taylor, Musk again emphasized his desire to promote free speech on the platform:

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. 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.

He added that the bid would be his best and final offer. If it is not accepted, he said he would reconsider his position as a shareholder.

Your move, Twitter.

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