Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion, so it can be ‘transformed as private company’

Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share in a filing published Thursday, saying the social media company needs to be transformed privately, a little over a week after revealing a 9.1% stake in the company. Musk’s offer values Twitter at about $43 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 sent to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor and disclosed in a securities filing.

Twitter shares were up about 4% Thursday morning after closing at $45.85 a share on Wednesday. Tesla’s stock dipped more than 3% on the news.

According to Musk, the social media company needs to go private because it can “neither thrive nor serve” free speech in its current state.