Tesla chief Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion. Breaking the news through a slew of tweets, he indicated that he might reconsider his shareholding in Twitter if the micro-blogging platform rejected his offer.
It became apparent that Musk was seeking private ownership of Twitter after he declined its invitation to have him on board, which would have capped his shareholding to 14.9%.
After acquiring a 9.2% stake in Twitter, Elon Musk posted a series of tweets that showed what changes he wanted to bring to Twitter. Now filing his offer with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he has said that he will unlock the potential of Twitter.
Musk elaborated, “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 functional democracy.”
Further, he added, “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.”
Meanwhile, Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, has said that the Twitter board is still evaluating Musk’s offer to privatize the company. Parag has held a meeting with Twitter’s 7500 full-time employee workforce. He seems to have assuaged Twitter employees who expressed their concern over Musk’s takeover bid, fearing their work culture could change if the Tesla chief succeeds in his attempt.
Twitter might consider a poison pill defense strategy to resist Elon Musk’s hostile bid to reign in the company, allowing existing shareholders to purchase additional shares at a considerable discount.
The other option is that the Twitter board could deem Musk’s offer too low to accept. One of the prominent investors in Twitter, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has said that the deal does not come close to the intrinsic value of the micro-blogging platform considering its growth prospects.
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Three cheers for Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter and protect free speech.
Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion, so it can be ‘transformed as private.