Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has offered to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, indicating that he wants the company to be turned into a private company.
Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share, revealed in a regulatory filing on Thursday, April 14, is a 38 percent premium to Twitter’s April 1 close, the final trading day before the Tesla CEO’s more than 9% holding in the company was made public.
According to the filing, Musk is willing to pay $41.39 billion (€37.92 billion) for the platform.
That works out to $54.20 per share, up 38% from the price when Musk bought over 9% of the stock on April 1. In pre-market trading, the price of Twitter’s stock soared dramatically, reaching Musk’s offer.
“I invested in Twitter because I believe it has the potential to become the global forum for free speech, which I feel is a societal requirement for a functioning democracy.”
However, since making my investment, I’ve realized that the company, in its current form, can neither prosper nor serve this societal necessity. Twitter should be turned into a private firm. As a result, I’m offering to buy 100% of Twitter in cash for $54.20 per share, a 54 percent premium over the day I started investing in Twitter and a 38 percent premium over the day my investment was publicly publicized. “If my offer is not accepted, I will have to reevaluate my status as a shareholder,” Musk stated.
Musk announced earlier this week that he will not be joining the board of directors of Twitter, just before his term was due to begin. Taking a position on the board of directors would have prohibited him from attempting to take over the corporation.