Tesla boss Musk's has offered £31 billion to takeover Twitter
TYCOON Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for £31billion. The world's richest man and boss of electric car company Tesla said he wants to take the social media platform private so he can turn it into a haven for free speech.
Musk said: "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it." It recently emerged that Musk was Twitter's biggest shareholder after he built up a stake in the firm.
He said that his offer for the company is final, and threatened to dump his stake if the takeover bid is rejected.
South African-born Musk, 50, said: "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.
"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."
Twitter has yet to respond to Musk's bid. Earlier this month, it had offered him a seat on its board, which would have barred him from making his bid.
Musk declined and Twitter boss Parag Agrawal said it was "for the best".