Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter.
One of the world’s richest men delivered a letter to the company with a proposal to acquire all outstanding shares of Twitter for $54.20 each, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission published Thursday.
The letter, delivered Wednesday, amounts to an offer to take Twitter private, a move that would give Musk greater control of the company. The offer values Twitter at more than $40 billion.
“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,” Musk wrote in a letter to Bret Taylor, chairman of Twitter’s board of directors, that was included in the SEC filing.
Musk confirmed the offer on Twitter.
The price of Twitter shares rose sharply in premarket trading Thursday morning, up about 11 percent to around $50 per share, before falling back later in the day and closing down 1.7 percent at $45.08.
Twitter said in a press release that it will consider Musk’s bid.
“The Twitter Board of Directors will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders,” the company said.
The move comes after Musk first bought a major stake in Twitter in mid-March and later agreed to join its board of directors, a move that was quickly reversed in a matter of days.
