Breaking: Musk Just Pulled It off - It's Official
It is finally official — the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, now owns one of the world’s largest social media platforms, Twitter.
On Monday morning, numerous sources familiar with the matter claimed a deal would be happening later in the day. According to Reuters, Twitter’s board was set to meet with shareholders on Monday to recommend they accept Musk’s offer.
Shareholders agreed with the board’s assessment and have accepted the Tesla CEO’s offer, which is valued at approximately $44 billion, according to the New York Times.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
Musk’s move to take over the company began on April 4 when it was first announced Musk had purchased 9.2 percent of the company for a reported $2.9 billion, making him Twitter’s largest shareholder. The next day, it was announced Musk would be joining the company’s board of directors.
On April 14, after turning down the position on the board — which would have limited Musk’s ownership to 14.9 percent — Musk announced he had “made an offer” to purchase 100 percent of the company. Musk offered shareholders $54.20 per share, a “54 percent premium over the closing price of the Common Stock on January 28, 2022.”
At first, the board was much less amenable to Musk’s offer.
In fact, the board had even adopted a “poison pill” strategy to thwart Musk’s bid by diluting shares of the company and capping off what percentage he could buy.
Nevertheless, following news on Sunday that Musk had acquired $46.5 billion in financing to back his bid for the company, the board began changing its tune.
Multiple sources told the Wall Street Journal that Twitter decided to take “a fresh look at” Musk’s initial offer following the news and was “more likely than before to seek to negotiate.”
“Twitter is still working on an all-important estimate of its own value, which would need to come in close to Mr. Musk’s offer, and it could also insist on sweeteners such as Mr. Musk agreeing to cover breakup protections should the deal fall apart,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
In an April 11 interview with The Western Journal, Aron Solomon, the chief legal analyst for Esquire Digital, correctly predicted Musk would be making a move “within days.”
“Like Elon Musk or not, one thing that we know is that he’s able to take things from zero to 60 very quickly, whether it’s SpaceX or Tesla or anything that he wants to do,” Solomon said.
On Monday morning, following news that shareholders would soon accept Musk’s offer, Solomon explained what the public should expect of Twitter once Musk takes over.
“Where Twitter goes from here following Musk’s acquisition is honestly anybody’s guess,” Solomon told The Western Journal.
“What is certain,” he said, “is that Musk and any other people who helped facilitate his bid are banking on the fact that Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter is going to cause not only a spike in the price of the shares, but allow Twitter to grow and scale as it has yet to prove that it can do in its history.
“While many people were and are concerned that Twitter may become a completely open playing field with no filters on speech, the forum for free-speech angle may have simply been a distraction for Musk to acquire control of what he sees to be a company that can dramatically increase in value.
“It would be very surprising if Elon Musk did anything, especially in the short term, to jeopardize the value of Twitter. Twitter will absolutely change and continue to evolve as a platform, but anyone who is expecting these changes to happen overnight is going to be sorely disappointed.”
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