Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk makes a hostile bid for social messaging network Twitter. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX had already amassed a share of more than 9 percent in Twitter in recent months. On Thursday, he announced that he wanted to buy the rest of the company for a price of 54.20 dollars per share – 43 billion dollars (39.4 billion euros) in total.
Musk wants to take Twitter off the stock exchange and run it as a private company. His offer is 38 percent above last week’s value, when Musk disclosed his stake in Twitter. Musk says it’s his “best and final” bid. If the enemy takeover fails, he will likely sell his current 9.1 percent share.
By threatening to sell his existing stake in Twitter, Musk is trying to persuade other shareholders to take his offer—otherwise Twitter’s share price may fall. In pre-market trading, Twitter’s share price initially rose about 10 percent.
The question is whether shareholders agree; Twitter was worth $70 a share last year, but lost ground. Until Musk stepped in last month with a lot of speculators in his wake – as always.
Also read this column: Musk and Twitter: Elon wants to get rid of his muzzle
Musk, who has 81 million Twitter followers himself, has been publicly annoyed for some time by the way in which he says Twitter restricts freedom of expression. He is now bombarding the leadership of Twitter with unsolicited advice, via Twitter. Many of those tweets have since been deleted, including suggestions to remove the “w” from the name or open the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco to shelter the homeless.
Suggestive Tweets
The CEO himself – with an estimated wealth of 260 billion dollars and also the richest person on earth – sees himself thwarted by the American stock watchdog SEC. He became embroiled in a conflict over speculation via Twitter posts. He manipulated Tesla’s share price with suggestive tweets about a possible stock market exit. Musk is no longer allowed to randomly tweet price-sensitive information about his companies, he must first submit such messages to an independent lawyer.
Musk bought into Twitter step-by-step, under the radar. Earlier talks between the Twitter board and Musk were difficult. Musk declined a seat on the board — such a position would prohibit him from raising more than 14.9 percent of the stock and from openly criticizing company policies. Only as a private company can Twitter be “transformed”, Musk writes in a short explanation of his offer.
Musk does need the cooperation of the Twitter board for his offer. It has since responded and says it will “carefully consider the offer, taking into account the interests of Twitter and its shareholders”.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of April 15, 2022