Funding Secured?

Elon Musk, the Technoking of Tesla, made an unsolicited ~$43 billion offer on Friday to buy Twitter (and install himself as Tweetlord).

📝 The deets… Taken from Musk’s SEC filing: “I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced.

• My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”

📱💬 Some of Musk’s proposed changes… Pieced together from tweets, regulatory filings, and an interview at a TED conference over the past few weeks:

• Twitter should soften its stance on content moderation.
• Create an edit feature for tweets.
• Make its algorithm open source and put the code on GitHub.
• Give users who pay for Twitter Blue authentication check marks.
• Rely less on advertising.
• Implement more effective anti-bot and spam measures.

🐦☠️ Twitter’s response: Following Musk’s takeover bid, the board implemented a shareholder rights plan, aka a “poison pill,” a legal maneuver designed to block hostile takeovers. It allows Twitter to flood the market with new shares sold at a discount if Tesla’s Technoking tries to increase his stake in the company past 15% (he currently owns 9.1%).

❓ What’s next?... Over the long weekend, we spoke with a few finance and corporate execs that have hostile takeover experience. Three common themes: Twitter’s stock was trading around $70/share six months ago, so the offer may not be very solid in the board’s eyes (especially given some of the aggressive growth targets it has); in the coming weeks, Twitter’s board will attempt to find another buyer to outbid Elon; Musk will submit a tender offer to shareholders.

As for what actually happens? Stay tuned… we’ve got you covered.👍