Elon Musk says he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, and he’s trying to negotiate an agreement with the company. The Tesla CEO says in documents filed Thursday with U.S. securities regulators that he’s exploring what's known as a tender offer to buy all of the social media platform’s common stock for $54.20 per share in cash.
But Musk hasn’t decided yet whether to do that. The documents say Twitter has not responded to Musk’s proposal. Last week Twitter’s board adopted a “poison pill” defense that would make a takeover attempt prohibitively expensive.
Musk was previously set to join Twitter's Board of Directors, but Musk informed Twitter that he would not take the board seat, the same day his appointment would have become effective.
He has recently spoken up about Twitter’s moderation efforts, criticizing the platform for “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.”