Musk's acquisition of Twitter is undoubtedly the hottest technology issue in April this year. From announcing to become Twitter's largest shareholder, to the moment Twitter has agreed to take over the offer, the twists and turns of the situation have attracted global attention, and "Digital Times" is in This is to organize the important news of this incident for you in the past month, and understand the ins and outs of Musk's acquisition of Twitter in this article.
March 28: Musk hints at building a community platform to defend free speech
Musk has always been a heavy user of Twitter, with as many as 83 million followers on the platform. As early as the end of March this year, Musk revealed that he was "seriously thinking" of establishing a social platform to defend freedom of speech and open up the public. We voted on whether Twitter adhered to its free speech code.
April 5: Musk becomes Twitter's largest shareholder, likely to join the board
Less than 10 days from the incident, Twitter submitted documents to regulators in early April, revealing that Musk owned as much as 9.2% of Twitter’s shares, surpassing Vanguard, an investment group that owned 8.8% of the shares at the time, and became Twitter’s largest. shareholder.
Musk, who has become the largest shareholder, naturally has the right to join the board. Musk also claimed that he will work with Twitter's management to make adjustments to the product in the next few months. Twitter founder Jack. Both Jack Dorsey and CEO Parag Agrawal welcomed Musk as a director of Twitter.
April 11: Musk declines to join the board amid speculation of a hostile takeover
In the next few days, Musk also published a number of tweets on Twitter, expressing his views on Twitter's subscription system, functions, etc., and soliciting the opinions of fans. However, within a few days, Musk deleted all relevant tweets. On April 11, Agrawal said to the public that Musk finally refused to join the Twitter board.
As soon as this news came out, the outside world began to speculate that Musk's next step was likely to launch a hostile takeover to gain a controlling stake in Twitter. To join the board, Musk would have to comply with a 14.9 percent limit during his tenure.
April 14: Musk proposes a plan to acquire Twitter, and Twitter sacrifices "poison pill" defense
Sure enough, Musk proposed to Twitter a few days later a plan to buy the company for $54.2 per share, hoping to take Twitter private to defend freedom of speech on the platform and stress that he doesn’t care about Twitter’s economic value.
Musk pointed out that this is his best and final offer, and he does not accept negotiations. If the acquisition offer is rejected, he will also try to use his position as a major shareholder to influence the decision-making of the board of directors.
At that time, it was widely believed that Twitter would reject Musk’s acquisition offer, and it was likely that it would resort to a poison pill plan for defense. After the news came to light, one of Twitter's major shareholders, Prince Awareed of Arabia, expressed his opposition to the acquisition, arguing that Musk's bid was too low.
In fact, Twitter immediately launched a poison pill plan the day after Musk made the acquisition offer. Once Musk obtained more than 15% of the shares, the rest of the shareholders could buy Twitter shares at a discount, thereby pulling Musk up. The cost of a hostile takeover.
April 21: Musk prepares a $46.5 billion silver bullet, Twitter agrees to reconsider takeover offer
But in the face of Twitter's defense, Musk claimed that he had a $46.5 billion silver bullet in place to launch his plan to buy Twitter, of which $12.5 billion was a loan from Tesla stock and from multiple sources. Bankers received $13 billion in financing and will pay $21 billion out of their own pockets.
At the same time as Musk’s offensive, there was also news that after Musk’s private contact with Twitter shareholders, Twitter’s board decided to seriously consider Musk’s acquisition proposal, and the two sides continued to negotiate.
April 25: Musk successfully acquires Twitter, and the outside world is hot about its future development.
In the end, Twitter officially announced on April 25 that the two parties successfully reached an agreement. Musk will buy the company for $44 billion. After the transaction is completed, Twitter will also become a privately held company. Outside analysis is because Twitter’s stock price has continued to fall recently, and the measures to increase revenue have been ineffective, so it nods to sell the company to Musk.
The news of Musk's successful acquisition of Twitter has also instantly detonated external topics. Whether he can fulfill his promise to realize freedom of speech, and whether Twitter, which he believes to uphold freedom of speech, will be attacked by extreme speech and fake news, have become the focus of discussion.
Musk's nemesis, Amazon founder Jeff. Bezos (Jeff Bezos) hinted that Musk's purchase of Twitter may give China influence on the social platform. China is Tesla's second-largest market, and not only does it have factories there, but it also relies on Chinese companies to supply its batteries, but he later said Musk shouldn't let that happen.
Twitter founder Jack. Dorsey immediately came forward to stand for Musk, emphasizing the need to reform the various ills of Twitter as a company. Musk is the only leader he trusts. Taking this platform with 400 million users back from Wall Street is the key. the first step.
However, Tesla investors are worried that Musk may sell his Tesla shares in exchange for the funds to acquire Twitter, which caused Tesla's stock price to plummet by 12% after the news of the transaction was released, evaporating hundreds of billions of dollars. U.S. dollar market value.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022, when Twitter will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and officially become a privately held company.
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