The Richest Person on the Planet Just Offered to Buy Twitter for $43 Billion

On Thursday, Elon Musk – the world's richest person – offered to purchase Twitter for $43 billion in hopes of transforming the company.

A week after becoming Twitter's largest shareholder, Elon Musk has decided that he wants more. On Thursday, Musk announced that he's offering to purchase the social media company for $43 billion in cash – equating to $54.20 per share – in order to transform Twitter.

"I made an offer," the Tesla CEO first tweeted, with a link to the regulatory filing which published Wednesday. As a shareholder, Musk owns a 9.2% stake of Twitter's shares.

"My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder," Musk said in the filing. "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it," Musk added.

"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," he continued.

If the Twitter board rejects his offer, Musk said that he would reconsider his investment.

"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 said.

Twitter has responded to the offer, calling it "unsolicited" in a statement.

According to the board, Twitter "will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders." The company will discuss the offer at 10 AM ET today, per CNBC.

According to Engadget, Musk is currently facing a lawsuit from Twitter shareholders for an eleven-day delay after disclosing his 9.2% investment in Twitter.