Twitter announced Mr. Musk would join its board, but by the weekend he rejected the offer.
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Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took aim at Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) with a $43 billion cash takeover offer on Thursday, with the Tesla CEO saying the social media company needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech.
“I think it’s very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech,” Musk, already San Francisco-based Twitter’s second-largest shareholder, said at a TED Talk in Vancouver when asked about his bid.
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Musk made the bid on Wednesday in a letter to the board of Twitter – the micro-blogging platform that has become a global means of communication for individuals and world leaders – and it was made public in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
His 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, the world’s richest person with a $273.6 billion fortune according to a Forbes tally, rejected an invitation to join Twitter’s board on Saturday after disclosing his stake, a move analysts said signaled his takeover intentions as a board seat would have limited his shareholding to just under 15%.
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