The blue bird is arming itself to thwart Elon Musk’s plans. The social network Twitter, which is the subject of an unsolicited takeover bid by the richest man in the world, announced measures on Friday, April 15, supposed to prevent the latter from easily buying back his shares.
The plan must “reduce the possibility that any entity, person or group will take control of Twitter by accumulating securities in the market without paying all shareholders an appropriate premium or without giving the board sufficient time to make informed decisions,” says the group.
This clause, nicknamed “poison pill” in financial jargon, will be triggered if the hostile shareholder exceeds 15% of the company’s shares without the agreement of the board of directors (CA). Elon Musk holds at this stage a little more than 9% of the capital of Twitter at this stage.
If he buys back enough shares to reach the 15%, all the other holders of shares on the platform will be able to buy them back at a reduced price, which would greatly increase the price the entrepreneur would have to pay to get his hands on the social network.
An offer at 43.4 billion dollars
This Twitter announcement shows that the San Francisco-based company intends to fight against this attempt by the richest man in the world to buy it out and make it an unlisted company. The whimsical billionaire has announced a proposal to acquire the social network at a price that would value it at 43.4 billion dollars (40.1 billion euros), against around 36 billion (33.3 billion euros). euros) at present.
He said Thursday he had “sufficient funds”, assured that he had a plan B if the Board refused his offer, and also that he was not looking to “make money”, during a live interview at the Ted2022 conference.
Very critical of Twitter’s content moderation policy, he says he wants to make it “the platform for freedom of expression in the world”, with fewer limits on what users can tweet.
