It's official — Twitter is fighting back against Elon Musk's buyout offer with a 'poison pill' defense
- Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter outright for $54.20 per share this week.
- Twitter's board met on Thursday to discuss Musk's $43 billion takeover proposal.
Twitter isn't ready to accept billionaire Elon Musk's offer to buy the social media company and take it private.
Instead, it's fighting against the takeover bid by adopting something called a "poison pill" defense, a Friday announcement from the company revealed.
The poison pill tactic, also known as a shareholder rights plan, is used to avoid hostile takeovers by essentially diluting an acquirer's stake via creating more shares in the market — or allowing other current shareholders to buy more shares at a discount, creating a "pill" that makes a hostile takeover more financially painful to achieve.
In short, Elon Musk will now have to increase his $43 billion offer if he wants to buy Twitter.
Musk is believed to be the richest person on Earth, with an estimated net worth of $259 billion, much of which is wrapped up in stocks and other non-liquid assets. It's unclear how much available capital he has, but Musk said in an interview on Thursday that he could "technically afford" to buy Twitter outright for the amount he proposed.
In its announcement, Twitter's board said this course of action "is intended to enable all shareholders to realize the full value of their investment," and it will "reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter."
The plan is set to expire one year from now, on April 14, 2023.
In addition to Musk's offer, private equity firm Thoma Bravo is said to be considering an offer, according to anonymous sources speaking to Reuters. The firm is said to have been in contact with Twitter's board about a potential offer.
Last week, a regulatory filing revealed that Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy the company outright. Twitter's board held a meeting on Thursday morning to discuss the $54.20-per-share offer, CNBC reported.
Musk said it was his "best and final" offer in a message to Twitter's board chair, and that he isn't "playing the back-and-forth game." Moreover, he said he would "reconsider" ownership of the nearly 10% stake he already has in Twitter if the deal didn't go through.
"This is not a threat," Musk said, "it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made."
But during a Q&A session at TED 2022 on Thursday, Musk also said he "has a Plan B" if his offer isn't accepted — though he declined to go into further detail.
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