Tesla boss Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter, saying he is the right person to "unlock" the social media platform's "extraordinary potential".

Axar.az informs that in a surprise announcement, Mr Musk said he would pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, valuing it at about $40bn.

It recently emerged that Mr 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: "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder".

Twitter's share price rose jumped by 5.3% to $48.32 in early trading, before falling back to more than $46.20 later on.

A filing with the US financial regulator appeared to show text and/or voice messages from Mr Musk to Twitter's board, showing that he had raised the idea at the weekend that the business should go private.