Elon Musk has made an offer to acquire all the shares in Twitter he does not own for $54.20 per share, valuing the company at $41.4 billion. The Tesla owner has also shared with his 81m followers on Twitter the changes he plans on making on the social media site once he gets it. Not only this but Musk has shared that if his offer to buy Twitter gets rejected then he might have to sell his 9.2% shares to another buyer.
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Elon Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter as the Tesla owner claims that he is the right person to 'unlock' the social media platform's 'extraordinary potential.'
Elon Musk took the world by shock with his surprise announcement saying that he would pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, valuing it at about $40bn.
As this news circulates on social media, it came to notice that Musk was Twitter's biggest shareholder after he built up a large stake in the firm.
He said that if his offer was not accepted: "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder".
Making a point, he shared that if the board of directors at Twitter rejects his offer, then it would be "utterly indefensible not to put this offer to a shareholder vote".
"They own the company, not the board of directors," he tweeted.
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Twitter's share price rose jumped by 5.3% to $48.32 in early trading, before falling back to more than $46.20 later on.
One of the filing US financial regulators has shown text and/or voice messages from Musk to Twitter's board, showing that he had raised the idea at the weekend that the business should go private.
Musk was invited to join the board but Twitter recently announced that the Tesla owner had decided against it.
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In the messages published in the filing, Musk said he was not "playing the back-and-forth game" and said of his offer: "It's a high price and your shareholders will love it."
He made it clear that if the deal falls through, he might go in the direction of selling his shares.
"This is not a threat, it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made," he added.
Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: "This is a deeply hostile move from Elon Musk who has threatened to 'reconsider' his 9.2% stake in the company if his 100% acquisition offer is rejected."
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In his filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Musk said he had invested in Twitter because
"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."
He added:
"Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."
Twitter said its board "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".
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Elon Musk is reportedly one of the richest men on Earth and according to Forbes magazine, he has a net worth of a whopping $219billion and that is credited mostly to his shareholding in electric vehicle maker Tesla. He also leads the aerospace firm SpaceX.
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In a wide-ranging interview with the head of TED, Chris Anderson, Elon Musk has not only laid out his vision for Twitter but also shared that he has a clear plan b if his offer gets rejected by Twitter.
He didn't go into details about what it was, saying simply that it was for "another time".
The interview was much anticipated among the TED audience which gathers in Vancouver every spring to hear a range of talks on technology, entertainment and design.
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Sharing his plans if his offer gets accepted, Musk revealed that the first thing he will do is open the algorithm of Twitter so that the decisions the social media platform makes can be seen by everyone.
He said that the code needs to be on platforms like GitHub so that it is easy for other programmers to see it, and make open suggestions rather like the operating system Linux was built.
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Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, said Twitter will either be forced to accept Mr Musk's bid or find another buyer.
He said:
"There will be host of questions around financing, regulatory, balancing Musk's time (Tesla, SpaceX) in the coming days but based on this filing it is a now or never bid for Twitter to accept.
"Ultimately, we believe this soap opera will end with Musk owning Twitter."
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Twitter had already made an offer of a seat on its board of members after learning that the Tesla tycoon held a 9.2% stake in the company.
The role was set to become effective last weekend, however, Musk decided against taking it.
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On Monday, Twitter's chief executive Parag Agrawal had tweeted that he thought the decision by Mr Musk not take a seat on the board was "for the best".
He added:
"We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input."
Though he also warned staff:
"There will be distractions ahead."
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As this announcement was made, Musk posted a cryptic message on his Twitter with a smiling emoji covering its mouth with its hand.
Elon Musk has already made it clear with his plans the things that he would like to change.
He has suggested changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, which was launched last year in Canada and Australia, including slashing the price, banning advertising and giving users the option of paying the monthly fee with the cryptocurrency, dogecoin.
He even asked his 81 million followers on Twitter whether the company is "dying" and if its headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter.
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