Tesla boss Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter, saying he is the right person to "unlock" the social media platform's "extraordinary potential".
In a surprise announcement, Musk says he would pay US $54.20 a share for Twitter, valuing it at about US $40 billion.
It recently emerged that Musk was Twitter's biggest shareholder after he built up a large stake in the firm.
He said that if his offer was not accepted he would need to reconsider his position as a shareholder.
Musk also said that if the board of directors at Twitter chose to reject the offer, it would be "utterly indefensible not to put this offer to a shareholder vote".
