Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion (USD), according to a regulatory filing.
The Tesla chief executive's offer price of $54.20 per share was 38 per cent higher than the closing price of Twitter's stock on 1 April, the day before his investment of 9.2 per cent in the company was publicly announced.
"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," Mr Musk said in a letter to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor.
"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.
"My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder."
