Musk Officially Buys Twitter, Now Board Salary Might Go to $0 and Save Company $3M Per Year
It became official on Monday — Elon Musk is acquiring Twitter.
According to a news release from the company, Twitter’s board of directors accepted Musk’s offer to purchase the company at $54.20 per share, or $44 billion in total.
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders,” board chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement.
That decision might be one of the board of directors’ last actions.
Last week, amid Musk’s efforts to purchase the social media giant, he indicated he would eliminate the board.
“Board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds, so that’s ~$3M/year saved right there,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
Board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds, so that’s ~$3M/year saved right there
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2022
Musk was responding to a tweet from Future Fund managing partner Gary Black, who had said, “Let me point out something obvious: If @elonmusk takes $TWTR private, the TWTR board members don’t have jobs any more, which pays them $250K-$300K per year for what is a nice part-time job. That could explain a lot.”
The Twitter news release said it will become a privately held company under the deal, but it did not address the board’s future.
After Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder by buying up 9.2 percent of the company on April 4, his relationship with the board became increasingly contentious.
Following his first offer to buy up 100 percent of the company, the board adopted a limited shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill” strategy.
The plan was an effort to fend off Musk’s bid by allowing existing shareholders to buy up more shares at a discounted price, which diluted Musk’s own shares as well as his leverage over the company.
Nevertheless, Musk responded on Sunday by acquiring a reported $46.5 billion in financing for his bid.
Throughout the entire process, he took several shots at the Twitter board on his own Twitter account.
If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty.
The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
According to Aron Solomon, the chief legal analyst of Esquire Digital, Musk did not attack the board haphazardly. Instead, in Solomon’s view, he did so with calculated intention.
These moves gave the billionaire even more leverage.
“This is a key. Elon Musk as the white knight. Between this positioning and compelling second offer, it might be too much to turn down,” Solomon told The Western Journal via email.
“Essentially, if Elon Musk wants Twitter badly enough it’s going to be extremely hard to stop him from acquiring it.”
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