China News Network, April 19 (Zhang Mingxin) The US Twitter company said on the 15th local time that its board of directors unanimously passed the launch of the "poison pill plan" to crack down on the "hostile acquisition" of Twitter by Elon Musk, the founder of the US Space Exploration Technology Company and CEO of Tesla.
From Musk's announcement that he will join Twitter's board of directors, to his plan to "spend" $43 billion to acquire Twitter, can Musk's wishful thinking be realized?
Infographic: Elon Musk, founder of Space Exploration Technologies and CEO of Tesla.
Plans to acquire Twitter are blocked
Does the world's richest man also have something he can't buy?
According to Agence France-Presse reported on the 14th, Musk launched an acquisition to Twitter, put forward an offer of more than $43 billion, and plans to privatize it. In this regard, Twitter said on the 15th local time that its board of directors unanimously approved the "poison pill plan".
The "poison pill plan" will allow existing Twitter shareholders other than Musk to buy additional shares at a discounted price, thereby "diluting" Musk's Twitter shares, making it more difficult for his acquisition plan to gain the vote of a majority of shareholders.
Previously, Musk reported in a regulatory filing that he had held about 9 percent of Twitter' stake. The Associated Press said that if Musk's stake in Twitter grows from 9% to 15% or more, Twitter will launch a "poison pill program."
The Associated Press also mentioned in the report that even if Musk's acquisition attempt is blocked, he can still take over Twitter by launching a "proxy war", and then decide to retain or dismiss the company's current directors through shareholder voting.
Still, Twitter said the "poison pill program" would not prevent the board from negotiating or accepting the takeover offer if it was in the company's best interests.
However, Musk faces more "acquisition obstacles" than the "poison pill plan", according to the Wall Street Journal, Musk may not be the only bidder for Twitter, and some private equity firms such as Thoma Bravo LP are also currently considering acquiring Twitter.
From joining the board to acquiring
The entanglement between Musk and Twitter
Earlier this month, Twitter announced that Musk would become a member of Twitter's board. In response, Musk responded on Twitter that he looked forward to working with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Twitter's board of directors to make significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months.
Infographic: Musk Twitter account.
However, only 5 days later, Agravar announced on his Twitter that Musk decided not to join the Twitter board again.
Musk then launched an acquisition with Twitter, offering to buy 100 percent of its shares and take it private. According to Agence France-Presse, in a document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the 13th local time, Musk made a quotation of $54.2 per share.
According to Musk's proposal, which plans to take Twitter private after acquiring it, he believes Twitter needs to "transform." On the 14th local time, Twitter's stock price rose 13% at one point and fell at the close. Tesla's closing share price plunged 3.66%.
If Musk buys Twitter
What will the world be like?
Twitter's importance as a social media that is widely used across the globe is self-evident. Not only ordinary netizens, but also multinational dignitaries and business tycoons often post their official news through Twitter. The New York Times even described Twitter as "a tool that plays an important role in the world."
What would happen to the world if Musk finally succeeded in buying Twitter?
According to Reuters, Musk previously said in his speech that "Twitter needs to be privatized to develop." Admittedly, the "privatization" that Musk is referring to is actually "Musk's privatization." The New York Times also mentioned that Musk's preference is to run Twitter the way he uses Twitter: there are no restrictions.
The Wall Street Journal said Musk wants to make substantive changes to Twitter. The report lists some of Musk's views on improving Twitter's means of operations, for example, Twitter should be more cautious when deciding whether to take down tweets or permanently ban users, and temporary filtering may be a better option.
Musk also suggested adding a Tweet editing feature to fix errors in tweets that have already been tweeted. Earlier this month, he surveyed Twitter users about whether he wanted to add a tweet editing feature, with more than 4 million users voting, with more than 70 percent of respondents saying they wanted to add the feature.
In addition, Musk also suggested making Twitter's algorithm open source, which means that others outside of Twitter will be able to view the source code and can suggest fixes and changes.
Image source: Screenshot of Musk's Twitter account.
In addition to the "vision" of Twitter's operation, on the 18th local time, Musk turned his attention to all the members of Twitter's board of directors, and he shouted on Twitter, "If my bid is successful, (Twitter)'s board salary will be $0, so you can save about $3 million a year."