Is it insanity? Not quite. Elon Musk is the richest man on earth and as such he can afford a lot of things that an average household won’t. One of these things is Twitter. Why is the tech billionaire bidding to buy the social media giant? And what can we expect if he succeeds?

Musk isn’t happy about Twitter’s direction

Elon Musk seems to be fairly unhappy with the direction of Twitter. In the past weeks, he repeatedly criticized Twitter for its policies and its inability to adapt. He was also musing about starting a competitor to the social media company and shortly after that, it became clear that Musk is buying 9,2 % of Twitter’s stock.

Making him the largest shareholder of the company. He was offered a seat on the board of directors which he didn’t take. Quite a surprise and it seems the start of a whole new chapter in the relationship between the company’s management and Musk himself.

It looks like both parties are disagreeing with each other and Musk is not backing down. Instead, he simply decided to buy 100 % of all shares.

Elon sends a message

The recent filing with the SEC contains a statement from Musk that ís directed at Bret Taylor and reads as follows:

Bret Taylor

Chairman of the 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.

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.

As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.

/s/ Elon Musk

And with that Elon Musk is trying to buy 100 % of Twitter’s shares. But this also means that if his attempted takeover would fail, Musk is most likely selling the remaining stock that he holds. The stock market was quick to react and Twitter’s stock price soared around 18 % on the day.

Time for popcorn: Justin Sun steps in

As if all of this wasn’t quite enough for the day, Justin Sun, founder and de facto face of the cryptocurrency Tron entered the bids via Twitter. According to him, he is offering $60 per share and pledged to make Twitter more Web3 friendly and decentralized.

Sun is known for his publicity stunts and it seems that most investors have better chances of taking the deal that Musk is offering. If any of the two will buy the company remains to be seen. It is still unclear if the SEC might intervene.

Even though Musk never mentioned Web3 technology in his latest tweets regarding the change that he would like to see, he is a known supporter of cryptocurrencies. Tesla still holds its Bitcoin and Musk is deeply engaged with the Dogecoin community. One can only wonder what would happen if the Dogefather would have the whole company for himself.