Elon Musk makes stunning $43 billion offer to buy Twitter

Elon Musk took aim at Twitter with a $41 billion cash offer on Thursday, with the Tesla CEO saying the social media giant needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech, reported Reuters.

"Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it," Musk, who is already the company's second-largest shareholder, said in a letter to Twitter's board on Wednesday.

The offer was made public in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

The billionaire entrepreneur’s offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38% premium to Twitter's April 1 close, the last trading day before his 9.1% stake in the social media platform was made public.

Musk rejected an invitation to join Twitter's board this week after disclosing his stake, a move which analysts said signalled his takeover intentions as a board seat would have limited his shareholding to just under 15%.

He told Twitter it was his best and final offer and said he would reconsider his investment if the board rejects it.

"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," Musk said in his letter to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor.

Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist, has been critical of the social media platform and its policies, and recently ran a poll on Twitter asking users if they believed it adheres to the principle of free speech.

Twitter will review the offer with advice from Goldman Sachs and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a source told Reuters.

Musk said U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley was acting as financial adviser for his offer. However, he did not say how he would finance the transaction if it goes ahead.

Musk is the richest person in the world according to a tally by Forbes. - Reuters