Musk's offer comes after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO became Twitter's largest shareholder. Musk says he will unlock Twitter's potential.

Transcript

DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:

The world's richest person also happens to be a prolific Twitter user, and now Elon Musk believes he can unlock the social network's potential. He's offering $43 billion to buy Twitter - the entire company.

NPR tech correspondent Shannon Bond is here to tell us more. Hey, Shannon.

SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: Hey, Daniel.

ESTRIN: OK. We know Elon Musk loves to tweet. Why does he want to buy the entire company?

BOND: Yeah. I mean, he's really a prolific tweeter, as you said. He has 81 million followers. He loves to use this platform to provoke and share memes, to hype up his companies, Tesla and SpaceX. He's also a really vocal critic of Twitter.

So in his letter to Twitter's chairman making this offer, Musk says he believes Twitter has great potential to be the platform for free speech but that it's not living up to that potential. He says he doesn't have confidence in management. And Musk believes he can be the one who changes Twitter. He says he wants to take it private to do so.

ESTRIN: Is Twitter considering the offer?

BOND: Yes. Twitter's board is reviewing this offer. And I spoke with Scott Kessler. He's an analyst at research firm Third Bridge. He says this could actually open the door to other interested buyers who might have their own designs on Twitter.

SCOTT KESSLER: This is really perhaps the beginning of a process, and it's not necessarily going to start and end with Elon Musk.

BOND: And look, Daniel - this has been a wild ride for Twitter. It was only last Monday that Musk disclosed he'd bought enough stock to become the company's biggest individual shareholder, immediately sparking questions over his intentions. Twitter offered him a board seat. He agreed to take it. But then over the weekend, he changed his mind.

And Musk knows the board has to take his bid seriously. He says it's his best and final offer, and if the board rejects it, he might sell his Twitter shares. That could spark a big drop in the stock price. And Twitter shares have bounced around today. They closed well below Musk's offer price, suggesting that investors aren't so sure what to make of this because, of course, this is Elon Musk. You never know.

ESTRIN: Yeah. Now, here's another question. Musk says he wants to buy Twitter so that he can allow users to exercise free speech more freely. What is that about?

BOND: Well, he describes himself as a free-speech absolutist. He's been critical of rules about what people are allowed to say on Twitter. But, of course, Twitter is a lot smaller than other popular social networks like Facebook or TikTok. It's under pressure to add users, grow its business and advertising. And getting rid of rules against things like hate speech, false claims about COVID - that could be a big turnoff for advertisers and users.

Here's Karen Kornbluh with the German Marshall Fund. She studies online disinformation.

KAREN KORNBLUH: When you poll people, people say they want moderation, that they don't want conspiracy theories floating freely on their platforms. They don't want harassment. So I think it's a misunderstanding of what people want.

BOND: But, you know, at a conference today, Musk said this is not about making money or about the economics of Twitter. It's about free speech. And he said if Twitter rejects his bid, it's not over. He has a plan B, but he has not shared details of what that is.

ESTRIN: All right. Well, stay tuned. NPR's Shannon Bond, thanks.

BOND: Thanks, Daniel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tags: Elon Musk  Twitter