Tesla CEO Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion
New York, Apr 14: Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company's board of directors.
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company's biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn't already own.
Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter's stock. It would be an all cash offer and would value the social network at $43.4 billion.
He called that price his best and final offer.
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 says in the filing.
However, since making my investment I now realise the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter.
The billionaire revealed in regulatory filings over recent weeks that he'd been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31.
Only Vanguard Group's suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.
At that point Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company's outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.
Musk's 81 million Twitter followers make him one of the most popular figures on the platform, rivalling pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his prolific tweeting has sometimes gotten him into trouble with the SEC and others.
Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay 40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at 420 per share.
That didn't happen but the tweet caused Tesla's stock price to jump. Musk's latest trouble with the SEC could be his delay in notifying regulators of his growing stake in Twitter.
Musk has described himself as a free speech absolutist and has said he doesn't think Twitter is living up to free speech principles an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who've had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.
Shares of Twitter jumped 11% before the market open.
I made an offer https://t.co/VvreuPMeLu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
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UP: Three killed, one injured in road accident in Kannauj
Kannauj (UP), Mar 11 (PTI): Three people were killed and one person was injured in an accident involving a tractor trolley and two motorcycles on the national highway here, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place on National Highway 24 near Atara village at around 11 pm on Tuesday.
According to Sadar Kotwali Station House Officer Jitendra Pratap Singh, a farmer from Mawai village was returning home on a tractor-trolley when it collided with a motorcycle near Atara village in Jalalpur Panwara area.
The impact of the collision was so severe that it threw the two riders onto the road, killing them on the spot. The deceased have been identified as Mohammad Ahad (20) and Arbaaz (16), both residents of Inayatpur village.
A man identified as Raju, a resident of Mawai village, was also injured in the accident and was admitted to the district hospital.
After the collision, the tractor driver lost control of the vehicle, which overturned onto another motorcycle, killing its rider Amit (36), a resident of Chhibramau, on the spot.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, police said.
