Elon Musk Offers to Buy Twitter

Elon Musk, who recently became Twitter's biggest single shareholder, now wants to buy all outstanding stock in the company. The controversial billionaire made an offer of $54.20 per share to buy up all remaining shares he does not currently own, in the hopes of taking Twitter private and transforming the social media giant into something that more closely aligns with his personal vision of free speech. This comes just days after Musk announced that he would not attempt to join Twitter's Board of Directors due to a background check he was going to be subjected to. Citing Musk's history of incendiary comments and performative behavior, Twitter users had expressed concern when he bought into the company.

On Tuesday, Musk was hit with a lawsuit alleging that he had illegally delayed disclosing his stake in Twitter so that he could buy more shares at lower prices. It's possible that this move -- which represents about a 10% overpayment relative to current market value for the shares he's offering to buy -- could make that lawsuit moot.

"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 filing with the Securities and Exchange Committee, which oversees stock transactions. (via AP). "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."

Musk's comments sound fairly apolitical on their face, but align closely with right-wing politicians and activists, who routinely claim that rules against hate speech and misinformation unfairly target conservatives. Numerous attempts have been made to create exclusively right-wing social media spaces as a result, with mixed success.

One of Musk's controversies is his public criticism of vaccination, and attempts to downplay the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Twitter added a special category for reporting of abusive tweets, which allowed users to report public health misinformation specifically.

Twitter's stock price, which is currently sitting at $45.85, has jumped about 10% this morning before the opening of trading.

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