He made the offer to Twitter in a letter on April 13th, which was revealed when it was made public as part of a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

At the time, he 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,” Musk said in the letter, addressed to Twitter’s Chairman of the Board, Bret Taylor.

“However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

Musk went on to accuse Twitter of “thwarting” his analysis of its user base and had threatened to walk away from his takeover of the business.

He had raised concerns about the issue of fake user accounts on the platform and the prevalence of spam, using it as a reason to delay his touted takeover of the social media platform.

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He said that delaying the deal meant he could verify a claim by Twitter that less than 5% of the platform’s daily users were spam or bots. However, Musk has claimed that he believes the volume may be greater, even as high as 20%.

This led to Musk wishing to pull out of the deal, sending Twitter’s stock value plummeting, and the social media company turning to the courts to force the billionaire to see the deal through.

Musk and Twitter were due in court on 17 October, but it was pushed back after the world’s richest man said he would go through with the purchase after all.