Twitter Inc.'s board directors can lean on concerns about the fate of the social media platform under Elon Musk to rebuff him, but if they decide to explore a sale, price will override all other considerations, corporate governance experts said.

The San Francisco-based company received a $43 billion "best and final" offer from Musk last week, which it is still reviewing. Musk, the world's richest person and CEO of Tesla Inc., has said he wants to make Twitter an "arena for free speech," cheering Twitter's critics who complain about censorship and alarming those worried about hate speech and bullying.

Twitter's board is expected to reject Musk's bid as too low by April 28, when it is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings, people familiar with the matter have said. Even if Twitter's bankers declared the offer was fair, the company's board of directors has wide latitude to reject it if they thought the platform was better off with its current content strategy, corporate governance lawyers and professors said.