Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $41.4bn

Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for more than 40 billion dollars (£30.5 billion), a US regulatory filing shows.

The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX boss has proposed buying “100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash”, valuing the company at 41.39 billion dollars.

Mr Musk said his valuation represents a “38% premium” to the price of Twitter stock the day before it was announced he had invested in the company earlier this month.

Earlier this month, it was announced Mr Musk had bought a 9% stake in Twitter and would join the board, only for Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal to confirm that Mr Musk had changed his mind just days later.

In his offer letter to Bret Taylor, chairman of the Twitter board, Mr Musk said he had invested in the social media platform “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”, but added “since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form”.

He said the move was his “best and final offer” and if not accepted the billionaire “would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder”.

In the past, Mr Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said he does not think Twitter is living up to free speech principles.