Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, has made an offer to purchase Twitter, a microblogging and social media platform, for $43 billion.
Musk announced the offer in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
The billionaire will offer 54.20 per share in cash, representing a 54% premium over the January 28 closing price and a value of about $43 billion.
In a letter to Twitter’s board, Musk said he believes Twitter “will neither thrive nor serve [its free speech] societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
Musk had first disclosed a stake of about 9% on April 4.
The 50-year-old conducted a poll on March 24 to determine whether Twitter’s algorithm should be open source.
Musk then inquired about Twitter’s adherence to the free speech principle.
Musk asked if a new networking site was needed after the majority said no, revealing that he was considering starting his own.
