After the welcome mat for Musk to join Twitter’s board disappeared, the billionaire has made a bombshell offer to buy every share of Twitter for himself and own the company privately.

When news broke last week that billionaire caricature Elon Musk had bought up 9.2% of shares of Twitter, the company quickly offered him a seat on its board in a likely attempt to placate Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, and stave off a hostile takeover attempt. Yet for whatever reason, because of Musk backing out, or Twitter secretly rescinding the offer, Musk relinquished his board seat Monday.

Which has led to the inevitable. Musk is now going all in on that hostile takeover, according to Associated Press, and is attempting to buy Twitter outright. “Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter’s stock,” the AP reports. (Again with the 420 thing with this guy, he can’t help himself.) The offer of $54.20 is about $10 per share higher than the current stock price.

In a letter to Twitter’s current board of directors obtained by The Verge, Musk wrote “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,” Musk’s letter continues. “My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.”

You don’t need a business degree to realize that is some serious dick-swinging and intimidation being attempted there. Twitter’s board reportedly had a secret meeting at 10 a.m. PT., which may or may not still be going, but the company has not yet commented publicly on the offer.

And we must remind you that Musk is a clever manipulator of markets, and maybe that’s all this is. Musk is presenting this as a deal that must happen immediately, whereas in fact, these mergers and takeovers are generally done over weeks or months, and with oversight from adult regulators in the room, rather than just between billionaire inheritee memelords. The only boundaries the man has ever had to respect is fines from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are small relative to his wealth.

So this may just be normal Elon horseplay. But for Twitter’s management, this is a five-alarm fire, and the ball is in their court.

Related: Elon Musk Buys a Nearly 10% Stake in Twitter, What Could Go Wrong? [SFist]

Image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 13: Elon Musk attends TIME Person of the Year on December 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIME)