Twitter bosses confirm they’ll ‘carefully review’ Elon Musk’s bid to buy entire social media network after he launched $41B hostile takeover bid that’ll see stockholders offered $54.20 a share

  • Musk on Wednesday sent a letter to Twitter offering to take the company private in a $41 billion transaction
  • He called it his ‘best and final offer’ and insisted ‘I am not playing the back-and-forth game’ 
  • Offer represents a 38% premium to the closing price of Twitter’s stock on April 1, but is below last year’s highs
  • Musk currently owns more than 9% of Twitter’s stock and recently turned down a board seat
  • Shares of Twitter jumped nearly 12% before the market open on Thursday when the offer was made public 
  • The Twitter board of directors said that it would ‘carefully review the proposal’ 
  • Musk has amassed over 80 million followers since joining the site in 2009 

In a tweet alongside a link to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the world’s richest man whose net worth is currently $282billion according to Forbes and $100billion richer than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, simply wrote: ‘I made an offer’.

Outspoken Musk, known for his social media antics, told Bret Taylor, the Chairman of the Board: ‘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.’

‘The Twitter Board of Directors will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders,’ Twitter said as it confirmed it received Musk’s bid.

Musk continued: ‘As a result, I am offering to buy 100 percent of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54 percent premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38 percent premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced.

‘My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

‘Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.’

Musk added that his offer was not a ‘threat’, but ‘it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.’

He continued: ‘And those changes won’t happen without taking the company private.’