Twitter Like Anything Else Can Be Had For A Price
That is if the price is $46.5 billion
On April 14th I posted an article about Elon Musk’s quest to purchase all of Twitter. He already owns 9.2% of the company and is Twitter’s largest shareholder.
In a letter to the board of directors obtained through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Musk made an all cash offer of $43 billion ($54.20 per share) to purchase the company while claiming this to be his final offer.
In response, Twitter’s board of directors said no by unanimously enacting a shareholder rights plan. The shareholder rights plan is considered a “poison pill” in that should Musk or any other shareholder acquire 15% or more of the company, shares will be offered to existing shareholders at a discount, thereby diluting the value of all shares and making Twitter much more expensive to buy.
While this seems like it should have put an end to Elon Musk’s dream of taking ownership of Twitter and eventually bringing it private, it appears that this may not be the case at all.
You’ve heard the phrases “money talks” and “everyone has their price”, well it appears that this goes for Twitter as well.
By all accounts, if Musk is willing to up his offer to $46.5 billion, a $3.5 billion increase, Twitter’s board of directors is ready to make a deal. Now that didn’t take long. Twitter can be purchased if the price is right.
Musk had already secured the financing for his $43 billion offer, so a mere $3.5 billion more won’t be enough to cause him to abandon his desire to own Twitter. As of this writing, it appears that he’s secured the financing necessary to offer $46.5 billion for Twitter, with an eye on taking the company private.
Beyond simply taking the company private though, Musk also wants to make Twitter an engine for free speech. Whether this is realistic or even possible is yet to be seen. All I know is that Musk has been told no before, and has come out on top. This time may be different though, we’ll have to wait and see.
More details of Musk’s filing with the SEC can be found here.
Until next time…
If you enjoyed this article, or maybe hated it, and would still like to read everything that Medium has to offer, then I would appreciate it if you would subscribe using my referral link below.
