Tesla CEO Elon Musk has proposed a $43.4 billion (£33 billion) deal to buy Twitter, claiming the social network has “extraordinary potential” for boosting free speech and democracy worldwide.
In a letter sent to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor on Thursday, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, offered to buy the entire company for $54.20 per share.
“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 wrote in the letter to Taylor.
“As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced.”
Twitter announced that it received an “unsolicited” proposal and that the board would “carefully review” it to determine “the course of action that they believe is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders”.It is expected that some employees of Twitter, who were concerned about Musk’s impact on its ability to moderate content, will attend a company meeting later on Thursday to discuss the news, Reuters reported.
In spite of Musk’s $274 billion fortune, most of it is tied to his holdings in publicly-traded Tesla stock and privately-held SpaceX stock.