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)