Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter

Created: 04/14/2022Updated: 04/14/2022, 13:00

Elon Musk currently holds a good nine percent of Twitter.

© Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB

Tesla boss Elon Musk would like to own Twitter.

This is the only way the platform can develop its potential, says the richest man in the world.

San Francisco - Tech billionaire Elon Musk launches an attempt to buy Twitter.

The boss of the electric car manufacturer Tesla announced an offer to buy all shares of the short message service.

The 50-year-old argued that he wanted to take Twitter out of the stock market after a takeover because that was the only way the service could exploit its potential as a platform for freedom of speech.

Musk has held a good nine percent of Twitter so far.

He is now offering all shareholders $54.20 per share, according to a SEC filing.

The stock closed at just under $46 on Wednesday.

However, Musk points out that the proposed price represents a premium of more than 38 percent on the last price before his entry into Twitter was announced.

Musk wrote that the price was his final offer.

If he fails with the takeover attempt, he will have to reconsider his commitment to Twitter.

The Tesla boss has more than 80 million followers on Twitter and is one of the most popular users of the service.

The chances of success of Musk's takeover attack are unclear.

Twitter has several financial investors as major shareholders, each holding between two and eight percent of the shares.

So it would not be enough to convince only a few major shareholders to sell.

Observers have already suspected that Musk could launch a takeover attack after he turned down a seat on the company's board of directors over the weekend.

According to an agreement with Twitter, he would have committed himself not to increase his stake above 14.9 percent.

On the other hand, stepping down from the board opened the door for Musk to buy more shares.

more on the subject

Elon Musk wants to completely take over Twitter

Elon Musk: Tesla boss becomes the largest Twitter shareholder

Tesla boss Musk becomes the largest Twitter shareholder

Twitter was recently worth a good 36 billion dollars overall.

Musk is by far the richest person in the world, thanks largely to his holdings in electric car maker Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX.

Financial service Bloomberg estimates his fortune at around $260 billion at recent stock prices.

dpa