Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has made an all-cash offer to buy Twitter for $43 billion. According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk proposed purchasing all Twitter stock he doesn’t hold for $54.20 per share. He is presently Twitter’s largest stockholder, having purchased a 9.2% interest in the firm on April 4th.
The day after Musk revealed his ownership, Twitter also stated Musk will be on the company’s board of directors. However, he declined the position five days later. Musk’s equity ownership would have ended at 14.9 percent if he had joined the board. This would have prohibited him from buying the firm. Musk then decided to write to the Chairman of the Board of Twitter Bret Taylor. Here are the top 5 quotes from the letter.
Here are the top 5 quotes from Elon Musk’s letter to Twitter board
- 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 I indicated this weekend, I believe that the company should be private to go through the changes that need to be made. After the past several days of thinking this over, I have decided I want to acquire the company and take it private.
- 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. I am going to send you an offer letter tonight, it will be public in the morning.
- 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.
- Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.