Elon announced publicly on Thursday morning that he had made an offer to buy Twitter.

I made an offer https://t.co/VvreuPMeLu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022

I had previously predicted that he might do this, noting that turning down the board position freed him to make such a move because he then wasn’t limited to how much of the company he could buy. He had been indicating that he thought changes needed to be made.

Now, his letter to the Twitter leadership lays out his agenda — he intends to save free speech on the platform.

He said he believes his offer of $41.39 billion is necessary to ensure free speech. But he did slip in a little bit of his classic troll in the offer: offering a price of $54.20 a share which is 18 percent higher than what the stock was worth the day before. The price also falls back on a classic Elon move about 4/20 and weed. It involves a big chunk of his $256 billion net worth.

From Sky News:

“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 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,” he added.

He said “this is not a threat, it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made”.

He said he does not have “confidence in management” and does not believe he can “drive the necessary change” while the company is still public.

He said the company’s shareholders will “love” the deal due to its high price.

The market sure did, with the shares surging 12 percent before trading. The shareholders would love it as they would make out like bandits.

That’s putting a bear hug on the company and if he walks away, the shares may tank, so the board knows that, too.

You know that the management, like Parag Agrawal and some of the leftist Twitter employees, have to be tearing their hair out — and it’s going to be glorious to behold. Elon knows that change isn’t going to come unless he forces it and it looks like he’s decided to make it happen, come hell or high water. Let the takeover begin!