Elon Musk's weekend tweets suggest another U-turn to Twitter's billionaire strategy.
Twitter (TWTR) - Get Twitter, Inc. The stock index rose sharply on Monday, but remains stable under Tesla (TSLA) takeover - Get Tesla Inc Report CEO Elon Musk last week, as the world's richest man focuses on what could be a vicious and prolonged battle with the club's board of directors. of this social media platform.
In fact, Musk said on Monday he would dismiss all board members, taking collective salaries to "$ 0 if my application is successful, so that's $ 3M / year saved right there" in his latest salvo posted on Twitter.
Last week's drama, highlighted by Musk's surprise at a $ 43 billion bill - a week after he filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission claiming he was an inactive investor on the blogging website - was followed by Twitter's move to accept the account. so-called immune pill protection. The offer allows existing shareholders to purchase more Twitter stock at a discount if anyone, or a group, investors get 15% control of the company without board approval.
Other buyers are reportedly yet to arrive, including acquisition company Thomas Bravo and the independent equity group Silver Lake, which has helped Twitter in its 2020 flexible bond financing agreement.
"The poison pill announced Friday stops Elon Musk's gross $ 43B seizure at the moment, and in our view, raises the risk profile of the stock significantly as we question the speculative interest rates from white knight and white price increases," he said. Benchmark analyst Mark Zgutowicz.
"For us, the Twitter board is likely to simply look at the gift horse in the mouth and if it is not careful, it could repeat the failure of Yahoo shareholder, forwarding Microsoft's $ 45 billion 2008 request to pay Verizon $ 5 billion eight years later," he added. .
Twitter shares marked 6.8% higher in Monday afternoon trading to change hands at $ 48.14 each.
Musk wrote late Saturday, in an anonymous Twitter message, that he could take his $ 54.20 share per share from shareholders, but also revealed in a TED speech in Vancouver last week that "I'm not sure I will really be able to."
In fact, Musk has targeted shareholders directly via his Twitter account, posting a survey over the weekend asking if his $ 43 billion pension should be decided by those on Twitter, not those sitting on the board. (which, he, owns very small shares of Twitter).
