Tech billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion in his “best and final offer” today. The world’s richest man, who recently became the majority individual shareholder in the microblogging site, has written a letter and sent messages - voice and text - to the Chairman of the Board of Twitter Bret Taylor.
Musk shared the excerpts and also his offer that he filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Twitter saying, “I made an offer.”
Here are the top quotes of Musk from his interaction with Taylor:
1) 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 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.
2) 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. I am going to send you an offer letter tonight, it will be public in the morning.
3) I am not playing the back-and-forth game. 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.
4) 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.
5) Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.
Also read: Elon Musk's 'best and final offer' to buy Twitter at $43 billion sparks internet frenzy
Elon Musk famously accepted and then declined a seat on Twitter’s board after acquiring 9.2 percent stake in the company. Had he been a board member his shares would have been capped at a little over 14 percent.
Keeping the suspense intact for a few days, Musk’s move to take over the entire company comes within days of him acquiring the majority stake. In his brief tweet today, Musk shared the excerpts of the conversation soon after the big news made headlines.
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