Elon Musk, the Tesla/SpaceX CEO, made a formal offer this morning in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S. to purchase Twitter, Inc. for $43 billion U.S. dollars. This comes in light of the space magnate already purchasing a 9.1% stake of 73,115,038 shares in the company just ten days ago.
Parag Agrawal, the current CEO of Twitter, initially shared in a tweet that after the news broke that Musk would be offered a seat on Twitter’s Board of Directors.
Agrawal added: “[Elon is] both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need … in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term.”
However, just days later, Agrawal confirmed in a statement that Musk decided not to join the board, after all. “Elon is our biggest shareholder, [regardless].”
“We will remain open to his input,” he added.
In the 13D filing, Musk values the company at $54.20 per share — a significant increase over Twitter’s current $37 billion valuation — and hopes to take the company private after his outright snap up of the social media giant.
A news wire from Twitter states that the company confirms receipt of such an ‘unsolicited’ request from Musk. “[The 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.”
Reports confirm that the board of directors had an extraordinary meeting at 7PM PKT this evening; it is unclear as to whether a decision has been made as of yet.
Musk has been vocal of his desire for a social media ‘void of restrictions’, essentially allowing for a free-for-all of common discussion. “I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk wrote to Bret Taylor, the chair of Twitter’s board of directors. “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.”
Taking companies private isn’t new to Musk. He previously expressed his interest at taking Tesla, Inc. private at $420 per share — which led to his removal as CEO from the company.
“Is a new platform needed?” he pondered. A week after this, he announced his intention to become a stakeholder in Twitter.
Musk states that, if the board were to reject his “best and final” offer, he would have to “reconsider” his position as a stakeholder. He assured Taylor that this is “not a threat, it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.”
“Twitter has extraordinary potential,” he concluded in his letter to Taylor. “I will unlock it.”
