Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for about $US43 billion ($58 billion) just days after turning down an offer to join the social media company's board.
He already owns 9 per cent of the company, but now wants to own it outright. So will his plan succeed?
What's Elon Musk's net worth?
Nearly $265 billion — and according to Forbes that makes him the world's wealthiest man.
But he doesn't have that much in his bank account.
Most of his wealth is tied up in Tesla and SpaceX stock so it's unclear how much cash he has.
During an on-stage interview at the TED 2022 conference, Mr Musk said he had "sufficient assets" to complete the Twitter deal, but he was vague about the details.
"I could technically afford it," he said.
How is he planning on paying for it then?
He hasn't said.
Documents filed with the offer say it is subject to "completion of anticipated financing".
Mr Musk could sell some of his Tesla shares to raise money — which could hurt Tesla's share price — or borrow against his stock holdings.
Tesla allows executive officers to use shares as collateral for loans but it limits the borrowing to 25 per cent of the value of the pledged shares.
Data provider FactSet says Mr Musk owns 172.6 million shares worth a total of $176.47 billion.
But a little more than half of Mr Musk's stake is already pledged as collateral, according to a Tesla proxy statement.
That means he could use the remaining stake to borrow about $21.5 billion.
He also could borrow on his stake in privately held SpaceX.
Could the offer actually go through?
The social media company is considering the offer, so maybe.
Twitter says it will decide whether accepting the offer is in the best interests of its shareholders.
In a meeting called after Mr Musk's offer went public, Twitter chief executive officer Parag Agrawal told staff the board was continuing to review Mr Musk's offer.
An anonymous source told Reuters that Mr Agrawal said the company was not being "held hostage" by the offer.
Twitter stock traded lower than the offer price of $54.20 a share on Thursday, which some analysts said suggested investors doubted the deal would go through.
The shares have traded above $70 in the past 12 months. They peaked at $80.75 in February 2021.
What happens next?
Columbia University law school's John Coffee says Twitter will probably attempt to negotiate a higher price per share.
And it may want provisions to ensure the board remains independent of Mr Musk.
He says the board may adopt "poison-pill" provisions to offer more shares and dilute the value of Mr Musk's holdings if Mr Musk's stake grows to 10 or 15 per cent.
But even then, Professor Coffee says, Mr Musk could still take over the company with a proxy fight by voting out the current directors.
However, other buyers may pounce, analyst Scott Kessler says.
"It seems that if would-be strategic and/or financial buyers are interested in Twitter, they should probably engage now," he said.
And if his offer does not go through, Mr Musk may get rid of the Twitter shares he already owns.
"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 said.
Why does Elon Musk want to buy Twitter?
Mr Musk insists it isn't because he wants to make money from the social media platform.
He says it's because Twitter isn't living up to its potential as a "platform for free speech".
"Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilisation," he said.
Twitter, like other social media platforms, suspends accounts for violating content standards, including on violence, hate speech or harmful misinformation.
Twitter's has most notably suspended former US president Donald Trump.
Mr Musk has described himself as a "free speech absolutist" but he has blocked Twitter users who question or disagree with him.
Regulators have also accused his car company, Tesla, of retaliating against black workers who speak up about discrimination.
What would Twitter look like under Musk?
It's hard to say.
One prediction — based on his comment that Twitter isn't living up to its potential as a "platform for free speech" — is that he'd scale back content moderation.
But he has called for the company to crack down on spam accounts, which may suggest he wants more moderation.
He has proposed dropping ads from Twitter, but because that's how Twitter makes money, it's unclear if he would actually do that.
Mr Musk has also suggested turning Twitter's San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter.
And he also seems to want a button to edit tweets.
One thing that is definitely clear is Mr Musk wants to open up the "black box" of artificial intelligence technology driving Twitter's feed, so that there is more transparency about why some tweets go viral and others disappear.
"I wouldn't personally be in there editing tweets," he said, "but you would know if something was done to promote, demote or otherwise affect a tweet.
"I'm not saying I have all the answers here, but I do think that we want to be just very reluctant to delete things and just be very cautious with permanent bans."
"It won't be perfect," he said, but there should be a perception and reality that speech is "as free as reasonably possible".
ABC with wires
