Tesla boss, SpaceX CEO, richest man in the world and soon also sole owner of Twitter. Multi-billionaire Elon Musk has landed the next coup and reached an agreement with Twitter on a takeover.
Musk wants to pay $54.20 per share. That is above the current share price and represents a total sum of 44 billion dollars.
Tweeting with 140 characters
Twitter was founded in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. With a maximum of 140 characters, registered users can “tweet” short messages on the platform. Meanwhile, pictures and videos can also be posted.
The platform is used by private individuals, but also by companies and media groups; worldwide, the service has around 211 million active users per day. With around 130 million followers, former U.S. President Barack Obama has the largest reach.
Elon Musk: entrepreneur and visionary
Born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated to North America at the age of 17. He was already developing computer games at the age of twelve, and his first company, Zip2, was bought by computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million in 1999.
Musk attracted attention as a co-founder of Paypal and founder of the space company SpaceX. He became known worldwide with his entry into the car manufacturer Tesla.
Timeline acquisition
On April 4, 2022, it was announced that Musk had purchased 9.2 percent of Twitter shares. This was followed by a report because deadlines for reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were not met. Originally, when Musk joined Twitter, he was also supposed to get a position on the board of directors. Musk decided against this and the first takeover rumors promptly arose – the post would have limited his shareholding to a maximum of 14.9 percent.
On April 14, the takeover bid is on the table, Elon Musk wants to buy 100 percent of the shares at $54.20 each. Twitter first tried to avert the takeover, but then entered into negotiations. On April 25, an agreement was reached and Musk presented a solid financing plan.
Financing
Musk’s assets are estimated at $280 billion – more than six times the purchase price of Twitter. However, much of that is in stock and not freely available. Musk plans to raise the purchase sum together with various lenders, but he intends to pay around 21 billion himself. The purchase is complete when shareholders approve.
What does Musk want with Twitter
The entrepreneur has also already commented on his plans with Twitter. He sees enormous potential and is looking forward to working with the company and its users to unleash it. He wants to make Twitter “better than ever before,” introduce new functions and make algorithms available as open source. In this way, he said, he wants to increase trust. To make it easier to push ahead with the necessary restructuring, Twitter is to be taken off the stock exchange.
For Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the takeover by Elon Musk is a good development. However, reactions to the takeover have not always been positive. Musk has often spoken out in the past about the lack of freedom of expression on the platform.
Twitter had increasingly taken action against hate-fueling behavior, had blocked accounts temporarily or completely. The best-known example is certainly former U.S. President Donald Trump. Critics fear that after Musk’s takeover, less action will be taken against false information and hate messages.
