Chapter 73: “I made an offer”: Twitter, April 2022

In April 2022, Musk abandons his plan to join Twitter's board and instead decides to acquire the company outright. After frustrated brunch conversations and impulsive late-night tweets from Hawaii, he instructs his team to pursue a takeover, ultimately sending an offer letter to Twitter's board for $54.20 per share—a 54% premium over his initial investment.

On April 8, Musk meets Kimbal for brunch and expresses frustration with Twitter's board, who he believes do not understand the platform. Kimbal suggests Musk create a new blockchain-based social network instead, but Musk decides the better option is to buy Twitter outright and take it private. That evening, flying to Larry Ellison's Hawaiian compound, Musk spends his first night awake tweeting at 3:32 a.m. that Twitter appears to be dying. CEO Parag Agrawal responds with a restrained text suggesting the tweet is unhelpful; Musk replies aggressively, announcing he will not join the board and will instead "make an offer to take Twitter private." Bret Taylor, the board chair, and Agrawal both request to talk, but Musk delays. While simultaneously texting Kimbal about a blockchain alternative (which he dubs "Plan B"), Musk tells Taylor and Agrawal to expect a formal offer. On April 9, he instructs his lawyer Birchall to contact Morgan Stanley bankers to determine a purchase price; they propose $54.20 per share, which Musk finds amusing given its marijuana reference. Musk travels to Vancouver with Grimes on April 13 to attend Chris Anderson's TED Conference. From his hotel room that evening, he sends Taylor an official letter offering to buy 100 percent of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, calling it his "best and final offer" and warning that if rejected, he would "need to reconsider [his] position as a shareholder." After attending a TED speaker dinner, he plays the video game Elden Ring until 5:30 a.m., then tweets "I made an offer." Back in Austin, his longtime friend Navaid Farooq visits and questions the wisdom of the acquisition given Musk's existing commitments to Tesla and SpaceX. Musk claims he can turn Twitter around in at least five years and expresses confidence the task is less cognitively difficult than his other ventures. Musk articulates a vision for Twitter that includes quintuple revenue to $26 billion by 2028 through subscriptions and payments, reduced advertising dependence, verification of real users via payment, and creating an open platform where diverse viewpoints can coexist—framing Twitter as part of his mission to preserve civilization and buy humanity time to become multiplanetary.