A self-proclaimed Twitter investor mocked Elon Musk, the platform’s new owner, by offering to buy the company for $30 billion less than what Musk paid for it in October.
Leonidas Raisini said in a letter posted on the social-media site Tuesday that he’d written to Musk offering to buy the company for $14.26 billion.
The letter borrowed phrasing Musk used in his April letter to Bret Taylor, then the chair of Twitter’s board, in which Musk offered to buy the company for $44 billion.
Musk said in his letter to Taylor:
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.
As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.
Raisini said in his letter to Musk:
Before you acquired Twitter, I had invested in Twitter as I believed in its potential to be the platform for free speech, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
However, since you acquired Twitter, you have not kept your promise of free speech and Twitter has become a breeding ground for online hate and terrorism. I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form under its current owner. Twitter needs to be transformed as a public company where members will become its owners. Together these members form the governing body of Twitter and under a leadership that can respect Free Speech without spreading disinformation and hatred.
Together with my partners, my fund has secured the funding to buy Twitter.
As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $18.53 per share in cash (14.26 Billion), as I do not consider the current valuation of $41.09 Billion to be accurate. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder and inform my fund to withdraw my investment.
Twitter has super extraordinary potential. I am the right one to unlock it.
Musk took Twitter private in October, saying he wanted to improve free speech on the platform and remove bot accounts. Since he took over, Twitter has been sued by some of the thousands of workers Musk has laid off and has faced an exodus of advertisers and celebrities using the site.
He said in December he would step down as Twitter CEO “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.”
In his Twitter and LinkedIn profiles and on his website, Raisini says he’s a music producer, DJ, and “angel investor” in Apple, Tesla, Virgin Galactic, and Twitter. Insider was not able to independently verify these claims and was not able to reach Raisini for comment.
Raisini has been a vocal critic of Musk. In a Twitter thread in November, Raisini called Musk a “pathological liar, a charlatan and a Super Villain.”
His letter to Musk features the letterhead of Raisini Ltd., a London company. Companies House, the British government’s register of companies, lists the business as dormant. Raisini Ltd. did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
