After becoming a 9% shareholder and rejecting an invitation to join their board this week, Elon Musk filed a takeover bid for Twitter that values the company at more than $43 billion Thursday.
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“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” Musk, who became the company’s second-largest shareholder earlier this month, said in a letter to Twitter’s board on Wednesday.
Analysts said his rejection to join the board signaled his takeover intentions as a board seat would have limited his shareholding to just under 15%.
The filing included a letter Musk sent on Wednesday to Twitter board Chairman Bret Taylor.
“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,” Musk said in the letter. “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.”
He added, “My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.”
The nonbinding bid would be subject to conditions including regulatory approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, due diligence and the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement.
Twitter confirmed receipt of the offer in a short statement of their own.
“The Twitter board of directors will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders,” the statement said.
Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s April 1 close, the last trading day before his 9.1% stake in the social media platform was made public.
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Source: https://www.law360.com/articles/1484085/elon-musk-launches-43b-takeover-bid-for-twitter
