Elon Musk was going to buy it because if the platform reached as many people as they claimed they had it was worth a specific price and he could make it worth more....by leveling the playing field for free speech. Being an actual platform instead of an editorial board.
But then discovered that they were lying about membership. And that they knew that they were lying. They had way too many sock puppet accounts to be the asset they claimed. Where it's heralded as a communication tool....not that many people are actually listening.
Well that is certainly the official line that the innocent and naive Mr. Musk is saying. Personally I think he knew the amount of bots was far higher than they were reporting and so he also knew the $54 offer would come down. He made that very high offer because the board of directors could not possibly get away with rejecting it.
Now it could be that Mr. Musk has altruistic goals with this platform, however, he is intricately connected with China and one wonders how his becoming a champion of free speech would go over with his overlords in China.
So I find that unlikely, not that Musk is not interested in free speech but that China would have their own goals which at the very least would wind up being mingled with Mr. Musk.
So then an alternate explanation of Mr. Musk's motives based on the evidence is that he sees the need to control a critical platform of free speech prior to the coming developments concerning transhumanism which will be extremely controversial with Evangelical Christians. Whether the goal is to destroy Twitter or simply become the new manager the result will be the same. He knew that through this process of buying the company he would be able to reveal information about the company that would destroy it. The liability they will incur will completely bankrupt the company (all of the advertisers will have the right to sue as will all of the investors). I don't think Musk needs anything from Twitter but might want to buy up all their equipment at fire sale prices.