Elon Musk mounts $43 billion hostile bid to buy Twitter

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Tesla chief Elon Musk mounted a hostile takeover bid for Twitter with an offer of $43 billion for the social media giant founded by billionaire Jack Dorsey.</p>
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"Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it," Musk said in a letter to Musk said in his letter to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor on Wednesday, which was made public in a regulatory filing on Thursday.</p>
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Musk's offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38% premium to Twitter's April 1 closing price, the last trading day before the Tesla CEO’s stake of more than 9% in the social media platform was made public.</p>
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Twitter's board said it would carefully review Musk's "unsolicited, non-binding" offer and decide on a course of action that was "in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders."</p>
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Musk said the "offer is my best and final offer" and he would reconsider his position as a shareholder if it was rejected.</p>
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Musk's latest to buy out Twitter comes just days after he turned down a seat on the board of the company following his acquisition of a 9.2 percent stake in the microblogging platform making him its biggest shareholder.</p>
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"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 said in his filing.</p>
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"However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form," he said.</p>
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Wedbush analysts said the Twitter board would likely be forced to accept the bid or seek another buyer.</p>
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Musk has more than 80 million followers since he joined Twitter in 2009 and has used it to make several announcements, including teasing a go-private deal for Tesla that landed him in trouble with regulators.</p>
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He has also been sued by former Twitter shareholders who claim they were deprived of the recent increase in its stock price because Musk waited too long to disclose his stake. </p>