According to a newly filed and updated 13D form, which was logged on Thursday morning, Apr. 14, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has finally made a bid for the social media site he has long coveted over the past few months. The roller coaster ride has certainly been an eventful one, wherein Musk was almost allotted his own board seat before being directly sued by Twitter investors due to hiding his 5% stake from January.
Now, the executive is showing all of his cards in an all-out offer that would see Twitter's valuation at $43 billion, with individual share prices totally to, in utter Musk fashion, $54.20 in cash. He just could not help himself from adding in that all-too familiar 420 marijuana reference.
According to Bloomberg, Musk's net worth equals around the $260 billion mark, with Twitter's official market cap being in the ballpark of $37 billion. Thus if anything, he certainly is giving them quite a bump in potential pricing. His entire reasoning behind the endeavor is supposed to ensure the social media site goes private so as to ensure specific alterations can be made.
What these might remain rather uncertain, but the executive has been quite vocal not only on the ethical consequences of free speech being misplaced on the platform but also has called into question the very integrity of the company. Not days prior, the CEO voiced considerations for changing the entire Twitter headquarters into a homeless shelter "since no one shows up anyway."
Musk relayed much of his convictions in a letter sent to Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor on Apr. 13, which was included in the SEC filing. In it, he relayed a ton of these very same concepts and highlighted specifically the importance of free speech and how the platform feigns to ignore this ideal. He writes:
"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be a 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."
Likewise, the social media site addressed the bullish offer via a press release, which explains that it will "carefully review the proposal" to ensure it remains "in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders."
As such, the Twitter stock has no sooner bumped by about 3.12% as of writing, and it seems to be maintaining an ever-volatile price point at around $47. If his bid is won, that would give Musk control of five varied companies: SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and, if all goes well for the executive, Twitter. How his leadership over the brand would outwardly alter its overview and strategy going forward still remains to be seen.
Musk's letter to Taylor closes with a confident, "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."
