Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has offered to buy social media platform Twitter for $41.1 billion.

He is currently offering $54.20 in cash per share, a 38% premium on the closing price from April 1st.

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

Elon Musk has also suggested that, should his offer to buy Twitter not be taken up, he will need to “reconsider my position as shareholder”.

The move comes after Musk revealed that he would take a 9.2% stake in Twitter, costing around $2.89 billion. The purchase made him the company’s single biggest shareholder and was widely expected to see him join Twitter’s board.

“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.”

Earlier this week, Twitter announced that Musk would not be joining the Twitter board. In the statement, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal noted that: “Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”

The move opened speculation over the reason behind the decision. A major touted reason for this was that, as a board member, Musk would have been limited to holding a maximum share of 14.9% in Twitter. As such, joining the board would have limited his ability to buy the social media platform entirely.

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Musk’s stake has not entirely been without controversy – he is also being sued over how he handled and disclosed his recent investment in the social media platform.

The class action lawsuit was launched over the 11-day delay before he officially disclosed his investment to the SEC.

According to the lawsuit, Musk began buying up shares in the company in January 2022. By law, it was required that he file paperwork on the purchase by March 24th, ten days after his holding in Twitter reached 5%. However, Musk only filed the paperwork on April 4th.

Since Musk revealed his stake on April 4th, the news pushed the price of Twitter’s stock has gone up by around 27%.

According to the lawsuit against him, this delay saved him around $143 million as he purchased his shares at a deflated price and meant shareholders selling their shares sold at a lower price.

“Investors who sold shares of Twitter stock between March 24, 2022, when Musk was required to have disclosed his Twitter ownership, and before the actual April 4, 2022 disclosure, missed the resulting share price increase as the market reacted to Musk’s purchases and were damaged thereby,” the document states.

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