Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for more than $40bn

The news of the attempted takeover came just days after Musk revealed he had bought a 9.2% stake in the social media company and was subsequently offered a seat on the board, but then declined to take up the position.

With an estimated $274bn fortune, Musk, who is also the chief executive of the electric carmaker Tesla and aerospace firm SpaceX, is one of very few people with enough ready money to fund a private purchase of Twitter. He has hired the investment bank Morgan Stanley to advise him on the takeover offer.

In 2018 Musk sparked concern by smoking marijuana on a live web show while he was under investigation by the SEC for a tweet saying he planned to take Tesla private.

Agencies contributed reporting