Elon Musk Makes Play to Buy Twitter Entirely and Take It Private

Elon Musk, in a letter to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor and filed with the SEC:

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.

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.

As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.

Also from that SEC filing, these bullet points from Musk:

  • I am not playing the back-and-forth game.
  • I have moved straight to the end.
  • It’s a high price and your shareholders will love it.
  • If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
    • This is not a threat, it’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.
    • And those changes won’t happen without taking the company private.

Musk can say it’s not a threat, but what he means is that it’s not merely a threat. If Musk pulls out of Twitter I think Twitter’s share price will, at least temporarily, sink.

★ Thursday, 14 April 2022