by Brayden Yee
In early April, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world bought 9.2% of Twitter, making the stock soar 25% and making him the largest shareholder of the company at the time (Vanguard has now become the largest shareholder at 10.3%). Musk was then offered a spot on the Twitter board of directors, which he refused, then proceeded to offer $43 billion to buy out the platform.
Twitter has been pushing back on the offering by the billionaire to buy out the company. Musk has tweeted that the economic interests of the board do not align with the shareholders of the social media platform. Musk has also stated that the Twitter board owns nearly no shares since the departure of CEO Jack Dorsey in November of 2021.
After Musk bought roughly 73 million shares of the company, he offered to buy out the company outright for $54.20 per share, amounting to roughly $43 billion. Since the offering, the board has adopted a “poison pill” defense, in which they increase the amount of Twitter shares in the market, diluting Musk’s ownership in the company, and forcing him to pay more if he were to buy Twitter. The defense is advocated as a shareholder's rights plan, meant to stop hostile takeovers. Musk’s response in a Tweet questioned the board's interests and if the members were really active on Twitter.
Musk’s bid to takeover Twitter has been rough, with the company playing defense against the billionaire, and with Musk and Dorsey turning up the pressure on the board, it is hard to see where it will end. Musk has stated that his bid to takeover Twitter is not related to the economics of it at all, rather it is about having a trustworthy, inclusive platform that is important to the future.
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