Elon Musk has purchased Twitter for a reported fee of just over £34 billion which will see him as the sole owner of the social media platform. There is possibly a reason he offered this figure when it came to making the offer. Elon is known to be a bit of a troll when it comes to his online presence; when broken down, that 43 billion dollar offer is $54.20 per share (estimated value of each share is $50-$60).
Elon has also publicly shared his offer with Twitter which can be read here.
Where he states:
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.
As a result, 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.”
Which he followed up with:
“If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.”
After completion of the deal Elon will make it a private company and unlock its full potential. What does that mean? Will he allow true free speech? Will he look to expand on the somewhat failed “twitter blue”? or will we just get an edit button?
https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue
Elon himself is worth an estimated $260 billion so the purchase of Twitter is a large dent in his worth but Twitter stocks have started rising since he mentioned his interest.
Elon currently owns just over 9% of Twitters stocks but has declined to be on the board. Musk didn’t want to submit to the police background check required to become a member of the board. He didn’t want to be be bound by an agreement with the board to cap his investment below 14.9 per cent of shares – thus making this a hostile takeover.
It is also reported that the former share owners are looking to sue Elon. They claim they missed out on recent rises in its stock price because he waited too long to disclose his stake in the company.
After Mr Musk disclosed his stake on April 4, Twitter shares rose by 27 per cent to $49.97 ($67.13).
