Elon Musk Just Offered To Buy Twitter For $43.4 Billion Through A Text Message

It seems that Elon Muskis not going to leave Twitter alone.

Just over one week ago, CNBC had reported that the Tesla founder had secured a 9.2% passive stake in Twitter, making him the largest shareholder in the social media giant. The following day, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Musk agreed not to purchase more than 14.9% of Twitter’s stock in exchange for a seat on Twitter’s Board of Directors.

On Saturday, April 9, Musk decided that he would not like to join the Board of Directors after all, as per The Hollywood Reporter. By Tuesday, April 12, the outlet announced that the SpaceX founder was being sued by Twitter investors over his late disclosure.

By Thursday, April 14, Musk offered to buy Twitter for a cool $43.4 billion dollars.

On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the SpaceX founder had sent a text message to Twitter board chair Bret Taylor asking him to buy Twitter. In the “best and final” offer message, he wrote, “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.”

“Twitter has extraordinary potential,” Musk added. “I will unlock it.”

The offer was disclosed in a securities filing on Thursday, April 14. In addition to the text message, a voice script was also attached to the filing. THR said that it was either a voicemail that Musk left for Taylor or from Musk’s side of a phone call that he had with Taylor.

In the voice script, Musk is recorded saying, “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.”

Although the Tesla founder had been quietly scooping up shares of Twitter since January, he only announced that he had acquired a 9.1 percent stag in Twitter ten days ago, which made him Twitter’s largest shareholder. Twitter had offered Musk a seat on the company board the following day, with the ultimatum that he could not purchase a more than 15% stake in the company. However, on Saturday, Musk seemed to reverse course and decline the offer.

In a memo sent to employees, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal warned that “there will be distractions ahead,” potentially trying to them of Musk’s desire to take the company private.

According to THR, Musk has hired Morgan Stanley to assist him with the takeover of the company. Twitter shares were up more than 10 percent in pre-market trading on Thursday but will most likely fluctuate during the coming days and weeks as the current drama with Musk unfolds.

The text messages were shared in the securities filing and published by THR. The text messages that Elon Musk sent to Bret Taylor about the potential takeover can be read below.

“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.”

“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?”