Musk said the cash offer was his “best and final offer”, according to the SEC, adding that if it was not accepted, he would have to reconsider his position as a shareholder. The CEO of Tesla sent a letter of offer to the company on Wednesday night, according to the deposit. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for freedom of speech around the world and I believe that freedom of speech is a social imperative for a functioning democracy,” he said in a letter to Twitter. “However, since I made my investment, I now realize that the company will neither thrive nor serve this social imperative in its current form. Twitter must be transformed into a private company.” The letter was addressed to Bret Taylor, the chairman of Twitter’s board, not to CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over the title last fall. He concludes: “Twitter has great potential. I will unlock it.” Twitter issued a statement on Thursday confirming that it had received the offer. The company said its board would carefully consider the proposal “to determine the course of action it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter shareholders”. Shares of Twitter (TWTR) rose as much as 13% in pre-order trading on Thursday, but soon declined. Shares traded up about 6% after the opening of the market, suggesting that investors had doubts that the offer would be accepted. But it will be difficult for Twitter to reject Musk’s offer at the price it offers, said Dan Ives, technical analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Musk puts the backs of his Twitter board against the wall,” Ives said. “The premium is at a level where we will hardly see other offers being made.” But to deliver on such a high bid, Twitter needs to do more to generate subscriber revenue and cut costs, Ives said. Musk’s commitment to using the company to promote greater freedom of speech does not, if anything, increase its profitability. “Musk doing this for free speech is the exact opposite of what any other corporate raider would do to generate revenue from the value of the company,” Ives said. “It’s historic and weird at the same time.” Musk has far more followers on Twitter than any other CEO with 81.6 million, and he is a much more productive Twitter than the few celebrities who have more followers. While other Twitter critics have complained that the social networking platform has not done enough to control the spread of misinformation, Musk has expressed greater concern about efforts to limit what users are allowed to tweet. “Last month, he said he was seriously considering setting up a new social media platform. month. “What needs to be done?” Last week, Musk revealed that he had been buying Twitter shares since the end of January and had spent $ 2.6 billion to raise 73.1 million shares, which then stood at 9.1%, according to what she had revealed. at the moment the company. the number of shares held by investors. But in February, Twitter announced plans to repurchase $ 2 billion worth of shares in a bid to boost its share price. And on Thursday the company revealed that there were 37 million fewer shares outstanding than previously reported. This decrease in total shares increased Musk’s share to 9.6% without having to buy a single additional share. And it reduced the total value of the company by $ 2 billion based on Musk’s $ 54.20 bid price. Following the revelation of Musk’s stock market, he initially accepted a proposal for a board position, an agreement that included a ceiling on his total investment in the company of 14.9%. On Sunday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal revealed that Musk had decided not to serve on the board, removing that limit. Musk has been unusually silent about his plans for Twitter in the days since. Musk did not disclose how he intended to finance his purchase. He said he had hired Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley (MS) as his financial adviser for the deal. Although Musk is the richest man on Earth, most of his $ 274 billion net worth is tied to his stake in Tesla and private SpaceX, and he was reluctant to sell Tesla shares beyond what he needed for to pay taxes. Shares of Tesla (TSLA) fell 3% at the start of trading on Thursday, possibly due to fears that Musk would sell shares to raise cash or that he might be detached from Tesla’s last interest in Twitter. It is very likely that Musk will not have to sell Tesla shares and will instead be able to use them as collateral to borrow the money he needs to buy Twitter, Ives said. Shares of Tesla Musk are worth about $ 177 billion, even with a modest drop in pre-market trading on Thursday. “Banks will be queuing up to join the lenders’ consortium for the richest man in the world,” Ives said. Musk is not a fan of publicly trading his companies. While other private space exploration companies, such as Virgin Galactic (SPCE), have gone public, SpaceX has remained private, despite speculation that it is ripe for public offering. And in August 2018, he announced on Twitter that he was considering privatizing Tesla, saying he believed this was the best way forward. Musk’s tweet about Tesla’s privatization, in which he said he had “secured funding” for the offer but did not do so, got him into trouble with the SEC. Eventually he had to resign as Tesla chairman and agree to have his tweets reviewed with material information about Tesla by other company executives. Private or keeping a company private, reduces the supervision exercised by the supervisory service in its activities. The price he proposed for Tesla at the time, $ 420 per share, seemed to highlight April 20, the unofficial celebration of marijuana lovers. The offer of $ 54.20 per share for Twitter also includes “4.20”. – Brian Fung and Brian Stelter contributed to this article.
title: “Elon Musk Offers To Buy Twitter " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-01” author: “Wayne Nunez”
At a TED conference Thursday, Musk outlined his plan to keep Twitter private, saying he saw the platform as a way to promote conversation and possibly even prevent international conflicts. However, he acknowledged that his takeover would have been a problem, and even before that his bid could have failed. “My strong intuition is that having a public platform that is as credible and broadly inclusive as is extremely important for the future of culture,” he said. “I’m not interested in finances at all.” The offer to privatize the company on Wednesday’s $ 54.20 a share mark marks a significant escalation in Musk’s weekly battle to gain influence over the social media company, after gaining more than 9% stake and flirting. with a seat on the board. In the deposit, he described it as “the best and last offer”. If it is not accepted, he added, “I will have to reconsider my position as a shareholder.” What about Elon Musk and Twitter? Twitter confirmed in a press release on Thursday that it had received an “unwanted, non-binding proposal” from Musk. “The Twitter Board of Directors will carefully consider the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter shareholders.” Analysis: Will Elon Musk bring Trump back to Twitter? Musk, who is CEO of electric car company Tesla and space company SpaceX, is known for his somewhat daring business statements, some of which do not come out. Musk wrote on Twitter that he had “secured funding” to acquire Tesla Private in 2018 at $ 420 per share, but was fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission when the deal was not implemented. It also often announces products like Cybertruck on schedule as soon as possible. The buyout price – $ 54.20 per share – may be a covert reference to that previous episode that put Musk in trouble with securities regulators. While Musk is the richest man in the world, worth $ 259 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, some analysts have questioned whether he had enough liquid assets to buy Twitter. Much of his fortune is tied to his companies. At the TED conference on Thursday, Musk reassured the public that he did. “I could afford it,” he said, adding, “I think it will be a bit painful and I’m not sure I can get it.” Musk has been down Tesla shares worth billions since late last year and started buying Twitter shares in late January, according to financial statements. Musk had said he intended to sell 10 percent of his shares to the electric car company, the most valuable automaker. Tesla’s valuation of more than $ 1 trillion exceeds the valuation of the social networking network it seeks to buy, about $ 34 billion. Musk plans to allow the maximum number of shareholders allowed to remain in the private company, he said. Some shareholders took to Twitter to express their disapproval of the plan. Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal tweeted on Thursday that he had turned down the offer, saying he did not believe it was approaching the “intrinsic value” of the company. Meanwhile, some investors and analysts covering his two main ventures are worried that the acquisition of Musk could divert attention from his ambitions to revolutionize the automotive and space industries. In a letter to Twitter President Brett Taylor, Musk said he believed the company had the potential to be “the platform for free speech around the world.” Freedom of speech is a “social imperative for a functioning democracy,” he added. But from his investment, “he realized that the company will neither thrive nor serve this social imperative in its current form. “Twitter must be turned into a private company.” The SEC filing also included what appeared to be text messages and voice messages related to the discussion. In a voice message that appeared to be from Musk, the Tesla CEO said: “I’re not playing the game back and forth; I’m going straight to the end,” adding to his offer that to love “. He said he would have to reconsider his Twitter post if his deal was not accepted. “This is not a threat, it just is not a good investment without the changes that need to be made,” he was quoted as saying. On April 5, Twitter surprised employees and investors by announcing that Musk would join its board. Days later, however, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Musk had resigned. “There will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged,” Agrawal wrote. “The decisions we make and the way we execute remain unchanged. The decisions we make and how we execute are in our hands, no one else’s. “Let ‘s reduce the noise and stay focused on the work and what we are building.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk will not eventually join Twitter His joining the board would have “handcuffed” him from the full acquisition of the company, CFRA stock researcher Angelo Zino said in an email to The Post. Being a board member would also give Musk certain responsibilities of trust, such as requiring him to act in the best interests of the company. Over the weekend, Musk unleashed a series of sharp tweets on the company. “Is Twitter dying?” he asked early Saturday morning. He then asked the most popular Twitter users, its San Francisco headquarters and the account authentication process. Before he finished, he made a lewd joke about changing the company name. Musk’s takeover bid was met with mixed reactions on Thursday. Some right-wing politicians have hailed Musk’s takeover bid as a broader backlash against the social media platform since it banned former President Donald Trump in early 2021. Spokesman Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) Said Musk deserved a medal for his “patriotic and necessary” fight for freedom of speech. Nigel Farage, a British broadcaster and former politician who led the Brexit movement, described Musk’s takeover bid as the best news for freedom of speech in years. “The media panic following Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter is the fear of losing the ability to censor conservatives on the internet and obscure the freedom of speech they do not like,” he wrote on Twitter. Representative Darrell Isa (California). Elon Musk’s temptation on Twitter offers clues to the destruction of the seats Others seemed concerned that Musk could gain too much control over a platform that many see as essential to freedom of speech. Fred Wilson, a New York-based businessman, said the platform was “too important” for it to be owned and controlled by a single person. “The opposite should happen,” Wilson wrote on Twitter. “Twitter should be decentralized as a protocol that feeds an ecosystem of communication products and services.” Musk attacked the Securities and Exchange Commission at the TED conference on Thursday, a common enemy since his 2018 dispute with the regulator over his $ 20 million tweet and chairmanship of Tesla’s board. “I was forced to give these bastards to the SEC illegally,” he said, echoing an argument he made in a recent letter to a federal judge. Reed Albergotti contributed to this report.
