Elon Musk Has A Plan B If Twitter Board Rejects Takeover Offer
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that he has a 'Plan B' in case Twitter rejects his hostile takeover bid. The development comes just hours after Musk offered to buy out Twitter for a reported $43 billion. The outspoken billionaire offered $54.20 per share for the micro-blogging platform, just weeks after becoming the company's largest share-holder following his purchase of a 9.2 percent stake in the company for a reported $2.89 billion.
The day after Musk's stock purchase was officially revealed, Twitter announced that Musk had been offered a seat on the company's board, "contingent on a background check." However, the Tesla CEO turned down the offer that very day. Many media commentators have speculated about the reasons for Musk's refusal, with some wondering whether he was unwilling to go through the background check for the fear of opening up a Pandora's box. As it turned out, Musk wasn't looking for a seat on the company's board, he wants to own all of Twitter instead.
Speaking at a TED2022 session in Vancouver, Canada, Elon Musk hinted that he has doubts whether his $43 billion hostile takeover bid to buy Twitter will succeed. Admitting that a deal seems unlikely despite offering a handsome premium over the current stock price, Musk said "I am not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it." When asked whether he had a Plan B if the offer was indeed rejected by the board as expected, Musk replied "There is." When pressed about his Plan B, he declined to elaborate on it any further. A few minutes earlier in the interview, he had claimed that he has sufficient funds to bankroll the deal if it's accepted.
Taking about some of his other ideas about Twitter, Musk said that it was very important to him that Twitter should be "an inclusive arena for free speech" as it has become a de-facto town square. Musk also said that he'd like the platform to move to an open-source algorithm so that regular people who are not employees of the company will still be able to see how Tweets are promoted and demoted. Musk, however, refused to respond to questions about the role of human moderators who decide which Tweets should be deleted. Musk is known as a free speech absolutist who thinks there should not be any censorship on Twitter, irrespective of how unpalatable an opinion might be.
Musk also sounded off on a number of other issues during the interview, including the infamous 'funding secured' Tweet, for which he was hauled up by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Musk insisted that he wasn't lying and had indeed, secured funding to take Tesla private. "I was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully," he said. Musk also claimed that he was "forced" to apologize to the SEC to save Tesla.
Source: TED/YouTube