Twitter’s board could be in for a fight with the company’s single largest shareholder. According to a report from The Information , it views Elon Musk’s offer to take over the company as unwelcome. This follows Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $43 billion earlier today. The company hasn’t publicly indicated how it’s planning on responding to Musk’s offer
Twitter’s board is also considering using a “poison pill” strategy to make it difficult for Elon to acquire a large stake in the company and avoid a hostile takeover. Poison pill, can be an example flood the market with shares once an investor acquires stock above a certain limit, making them easier to acquire for others (and costly for a single investor to buy up) when someone attempts a takeover.
This afternoon, Musk polled his twitter followers with a rather leading prompt: “Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board”.
It’s hard to say whether Musk will be deterred by Twitter’s tactics, provided he can actually come up with the money required to take the company private. In a TED interview on Thursday, he said the acquisition wouldn’t be about making money, he’s frequently cited “free speech” as the main reason for his interest in Twitter. Though, Musk has promised and failed to take companies private before.
