Elon Musk's message to Twitter on his $43 billion takeover offer. Full text
Premium- The SEC filing also included a voice script in which he said the $54.20-per-share offer was his best and final
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter was first made in a 281-character message to the microblogging site. Twitter’s character limit for a tweet is 280.
Musk's $43 billion offer to buy Twitter was made public today. The billionaire said the social media platform he has criticised for not living up to free speech principles needs to be transformed as a private firm.
“As I indicated this weekend, I believe that the company should be private to go through the changes that need to be made. After the past several days of thinking this over, I have decided I want to acquire the company and take it private. I am going to send you an offer letter tonight, it will be public in the morning. Are you available to chat?" an SEC filing read.
The filing also included a voice script in which he said the $54.20-per-share offer was his best and final.
“I am not playing the back-and-forth game," Musk said. “I have moved straight to the end. It’s a high price and your shareholders will love it. If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder."
Musk made clear that “this is not a threat, it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made. And those changes won’t happen without taking the company private."
Here's the formal letter
Musk has sent the following formal letter to Bret Taylor, chairman of Twitter’s board:
I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
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.
As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.