Elon Musk, who is the biggest shareholder in Twitter, is trying to purchase all remaining shares of the publicly traded social media company for a price tag of more than $43 billion in an attempt to own the popular platform.
Musk’s filing with the United State Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today (April 14) features a statement from the billionaire to Twitter’s Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor where he says the following:
“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.”
While the $43 billion price tag is Musk’s “best and final offer,” the Associated Press (AP) noted Musk provided no details on how he would finance the share purchase. The AP also added, “Twitter said it has received Musk’s offer and will decide whether it is in the best interests of shareholders to accept or continue to operate as a publicly traded company…The billionaire has been a vocal critic of Twitter in recent weeks, mostly over his belief that it falls short on free speech principles…Musk, who has described himself as a ‘free speech absolutist,’ also has a history of his own tweets causing legal problems.”
Understandably, a move like this quickly caused Musk to become the number one trend on Twitter with a lot of mixed reactions. Here are some notable reactions, from those against Musk’s takeover to those who support it to those who just wanted to continue to dunk on the billionaire.
