The billionaire tech mogul reached a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter last week when he purchased $2.89 billion in shares, making him the company’s largest single shareholder. Rumors quickly swirled that the massive purchase signaled interest in an eventual “all-out buyout,” though few expected such an attempt to come so soon.
But an SEC filing from yesterday confirms Musk has submitted an official offer to “buy 100 percent of Twitter.” Twitter itself has also confirmed receipt of the “unsolicited, non-binding proposal,” which offers to buy all of the company’s stock for $54.20 per share—$43 billion total.
“The Twitter Board of Directors 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,” the social network wrote in its brief statement.
(Photo: Dan Taylor, Heisenberg Media/Wikimedia Commons)
Those familiar with Musk’s prior Twitter antics will be unsurprised to learn that his offer is motivated at least in part by a penchant for freedom of speech. In his note (included in the SEC filing) Musk told Chairman Bret Taylor that he believes in Twitter’s “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” but that “the company should be private to go through the changes that need to be made.” Musk stated that he didn’t believe he could drive those changes through his current role as a shareholder, and that if his offer were denied, he’d likely need to reconsider his position in the public market.
But what specifically could Musk’s desired changes look like? If his tweets are anything to go by, Musk appears to be interested in implementing an edit button—a feature many other social networks have, but that Twitter has lacked since the beginning. There’s also a pretty decent chance he’d tweak Twitter’s content moderation policies. Musk has gotten in trouble with various alphabet soup agencies for his tweets on more than a few occasions, though it’s important to note ownership of Twitter would only give Musk the power to change the company’s social rules, not the government’s.
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