As Vanguard Group increased its stake in social media company Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk officially lost his largest shareholder status.
The news comes as Twitter's board of directors is considering a proposal from Musk to buy the social platform for about $43 billion.
On April 8, Pioneer Group disclosed that it had increased its stake in Twitter to 10.3%, equivalent to 82.4 million shares, replacing Musk as the company's largest shareholder. The Wall Street Journal initially reported on the change in Twitter's largest shareholder. Previously, Pioneer Group held 67.2 million shares, or about 8.4% of Twitter's shares.
In early April, Musk revealed that he had acquired a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter. After announcing that he would not join Twitter's board, Musk was free to do what he wanted. That includes his offer on the morning of April 14 to wholly buy Twitter for $41 billion.
On April 14, Musk offered a full-asset acquisition of Twitter for $54.20 per share. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk said: "My offer is my best, final offer, and if it is not accepted, I will need to reconsider my position as a shareholder." ”
As of press time, Twitter's board of directors had not made a decision on Musk's takeover offer, after Twitter's board said on the same day that it needed to consider its own options. Most recent reports suggest that Twitter may be using a "poison pill" strategy to deal with Musk's takeover, which allows shareholders to increase their holdings of discounted shares, effectively eliminating Musk's ability to leapfrog Twitter's board of directors and make significant changes to the company.
When Musk believes that a decision should be decided by Twitter shareholders, not by the board. Musk tweeted: "Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should depend on shareholders, not the board." ”
Some media outlets quoted insiders as saying that despite Musk's high bids, Twitter was not inclined to hand over the company to him internally. Musk said his plan to buy Twitter had no other ideas than to make it an "inclusive free speech stage." Of course, he said, just listen to it!