Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter in an effort to take control of the social media company, he said Thursday in a regulatory filing.
The transaction was estimated to cost more than $40 billion before the market opened on Thursday, according to Bloomberg.
Mr. Musk proposed to purchase all the outstanding shares of Twitter stock he does not own in a letter he sent Wednesday to Twitter, he told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
After previously acquiring a 9.2% stake in Twitter, Mr. Musk sought to join the company’s board and then abruptly reversed course.
“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,” Mr. Musk said in the regulatory filing. “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 electric vehicle and space technology tycoon said his “best and final offer” is to purchase the outstanding shares of Twitter stock for $54.20 each in cash, which Mr. Musk described as a 54% premium over the day before he began investing in the company.
Twitter confirmed it received his “unsolicited, non-binding proposal.”
“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,” the company said in a statement.
Mr. Musk withdrew his decision to join Twitter’s board on Saturday and avoided saying in a different regulatory filing earlier this week whether he would look to obtain more Twitter stock.
His actions have drawn scrutiny from investors and may rouse regulators as well. Earlier this week, the law firm Block & Leviton sued Mr. Musk for alleged securities violations involving missing a deadline to reveal he amassed a certain amount of Twitter’s stock. The lawsuit filed in New York federal court is seeking to become a class action.
Regulators also are likely studying Mr. Musk’s actions closely, according to former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. Mr. Clayton told CNBC this week that he had “no doubt” regulators are watching Mr. Musk’s moves but noted that he had no special information about the agency’s plans.
Anyone wanting to stay updated on the billionaire’s actions can follow Mr. Musk’s activity on Twitter — the billionaire posted Thursday’s regulatory filing showing his offer to buy Twitter from his own account.
Mr. Musk also has deleted posts in recent days that portrayed the company in a negative light, including one questioning whether to convert Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter “since no one shows up anyway” to work there.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has implored the platform’s employees to ignore the noise about the billionaire. In a note to workers announcing Mr. Musk was not joining the company’s board, Mr. Agrawal said Sunday that distractions were incoming but decisions about Twitter’s future remained in their hands.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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