South African-born mega-billionaire Elon Musk left the stock market in tatters on Thursday when he casually tweeted proof of his $41-billion cash offer to Twitter.
Why does Elon Musk want to buy Twitter?
In a regulatory filing he shared to his 81.6 million followers, it was confirmed that the Space X owner made an offer to purchase the blue bird social media application at $54.20 per share, closing Twitter’s trade on 1 April 2022 at a 38% premium, per Reuters.
The announcement comes days after Musk declined to join the Twitter board, a move, experts note, that was premeditated for this specific outcome.
If he had accepted a seat on the Twitter board with a 9% stake in the company, any further attempts to garner control of the business would be capped at 15%.
The billionaire hailing from Pretoria, Gauteng, has other plans in mind, the first of which is addressing an epiphany he’d been struck by earlier this week.
Most of these “top” accounts tweet rarely and post very little content.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2022
Is Twitter dying? https://t.co/lj9rRXfDHE
A letter he recently sent to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor expounded on his findings, asserting that “the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form.”
“Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” he wrote.
Musk’s approach has yet to be reciprocated, or at least, Twitter had not issued a response to the cash offer at the time of reporting. Either way, Tesla’s CEO shares an optimism about the outcome. Twitter may fold.
“My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” he warned.
At the time this article was published (14:15 CAT), Twitter’s stock had risen by 3.10% since Thursday’s opening position. Early indicators suggest the social media company is in line to close strongly at $48.75 per share.