Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, the world’s richest man, has made a shocking offer to buy social media Twitter for $43 billion.
The decision came after a confusion, such as announcing his participation in the board of directors and reversing it after it was belatedly revealed that Musk bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter on the 4th (local time).
According to Bloomberg and Reuters on the 13th (local time), Musk offered $54.20 per share as the acquisition price. It is 54% higher than the closing price on January 28, and is 17% higher than Twitter’s current market price of $36.7 billion. Musk, the world’s richest man, said he would pay for the purchase in full cash. According to Forbes, Musk is estimated to have $12.7 trillion worth of assets. Tesla’s stock price soared 33% to 68 billion dollars in a year.
In a letter to the Twitter board of directors, Musk said, “I don’t think Twitter will meet or develop the social obligation of freedom of expression as it is,” and argued, “Twitter should turn into a private company.”
Musk is expected to launch a hostile takeover if Twitter does not accept the acquisition offer.He said, “If a deal is not made without confidence in my management and not believing that I can lead to the necessary changes in the public market, I need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.”
Musk has appointed Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley as his acquisition advisor.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on the 4th that Musk bought about 73.5 million shares (92%) of Twitter shares on the 14th of last month. It was interpreted that Musk, who criticized Twitter for freedom of expression, hinted at participation in Twitter management.
