After buying shares in Twitter, Elon Musk has now put in a bid to completely take over the social networking company.

The Tesla CEO and billionaire reportedly put in a bid of $41.39 billion to take complete control of the company and earlier today in an official statement, Twitter said:

“The Twitter Board of Directors will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders.”

Musk sent the offer on Wednesday night along with a letter which said, “it’s a high price and your shareholders will love it”.

He indicated that the offer was the highest he was prepared to go and said if it was not accepted: “I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder”.

Since Musk’s decision to buy around nine percent of Twitter’s stocks earlier this month – making him the company’s biggest shareholder, right-wing politicians, commentators and social media users have rejoiced in the notion that free speech and discussion on the platform may be reinstated.

Musk is a well-known free-speech advocate and Donald Trump fan. Twitter sparked outrage in 2021 as former president was perma-banned from Twitter after supposedly ‘inciting violence’ during the Capitol building riots.

Many social media users accused vocal lefty and former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey of hypocrisy and shutting down peaceful, free speech, pointing out that the former terrorist group the Taliban were freely allowed to use the platform while Trump was not.

Speaking to Twitter board chair Bret Taylor, Musk said:

“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.”

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

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022

“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” he added.

Twitter’s shares saw a rise of 5.6 percent earlier today but the stock is still below Musk’s offer price, so his bid still may not be successful, but Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the bid is a “historic move” and said he believed it will eventually result in Musk owning the platform;

“Ultimately we believe this soap opera will end with Musk owning Twitter after this aggressive hostile takeover of the company”.

Ives said despite the decision regarding this bid, the relationship between Twitter and Musk is likely to take “many twists and turns” in the weeks ahead as Twitter and Musk walk down this marriage path”.

Musk mysteriously rejected an offer to join Twitter’s board earlier this week, promoting rumours that he may have intended to take over the company, as a board seat would limit his steak to 15 percent.

The move comes after Twitter-critical Musk posted that he thought the platform was “dying” and added that his offer was “not a threat” but “ it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.

“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”