In 2017, Elon Musk, who is not yet the world's richest man, tweeted:
On April 26, 2022, Musk, the world's richest man, officially announced the full acquisition of the social platform Twitter for $44 billion.
After the acquisition is completed, Twitter will become a privately held company -
In other words, in the future, Twitter will be surnamed Ma!
In fact, this matter has already begun in early April.
On April 5th, Musk was double-happy and became Twitter's largest individual shareholder on the same day that he officially became the richest man in Forbes.
At that time, Twitter CEO Agarvar welcomed Musk on Twitter in a strange way, and the atmosphere was so awkward that the melon-eating masses could taste the atmosphere that was wrong.
This is really not over-interpretation, the truth is that there is such a mistake - because Twitter did not want to be acquired at that time!
But who is Musk? The world's richest man in an absolutely willful manner.
Don't want to be acquired, right, I add money, add until you agree, give a price you can't refuse...
As soon as this matter came out, netizens played crazy on Twitter:
Twitter: We're not going to sell it to Musk.
Twitter: We're going to sell to Musk. ”
"Musk spent $44 billion to have Twitter, and I, without spending a cent, loaded Twitter, hehe!"
"Musk could build a real-life Iron Man armor with $44 billion, but he actually used the money to buy Twitter."
"At this moment, the employees of Twitter's headquarters building are recorded."
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion.
At the same time, I also need to fill the shampoo bottle with water..."
"After Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, Twitter's new logo."
However, the actual business war is not as simple as simply adding money, and the story is worth telling.
First of all, Musk's plan to buy Twitter actually began three months ago.
His friend, former Twitter CEO Dorsey, was forced to step down last December, and in January he quietly bought Twitter's ordinary stake.
There was no wind noise, everything was carried out in secrecy.
By the end of March, by the time Twitter reacted, he had purchased more than 73.5 million shares of common stock, or 9.2 percent, through his trust.
At this time, Twitter is already a bit passive.
On April 5, Musk officially announced that he had become the largest shareholder of Twitter, and Twitter gave the first move: Then please join our board!
Joining the board, ostensibly politely inviting Musk to start getting involved in Twitter's decision later, is actually... Rather, it is a limitation.
Because the condition for joining the board is that Musk is not allowed to hold 14.9% of Twitter stock.
In fact, Twitter is a company with a very dispersed shareholding structure, and Twitter's board currently has a total of 11 members, with a total shareholding of less than 2.5%.
Among them, the highest shareholding is still Musk's friend, Former Twitter CEO Dorsey, accounting for 2.253%.
It is not too much to give Musk a limit of no more than 14.9% shareholding.
But for Musk — why should I join the board?
Joining the board means that all decisions must be discussed with the rest of the board and cannot be said on their own.
Without joining Twitter's board, Musk, as the largest shareholder, can also participate in discussions about Twitter's management, and will not be limited by his shareholding.
This kind of thing that is not beneficial, the shrewd businessman naturally will not do.
On April 6, Twitter filed a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission saying Musk would join Twitter's board for a term until 2024.
On April 9, Musk announced his refusal to join Twitter's board.
Twitter's first trick, failed.
At the same time, Musk's ambition to buy all of Twitter's shares and privatize Twitter has become well known.
From that day on, the war between Musk and Twitter officially began.
On April 11, Twitter CEO Aghavar tweeted confirmation that Musk refused to join the board.
On April 12, Twitter shareholders sued Musk for failing to comply with federal law by delaying disclosure of his holdings in Twitter shares.
(As soon as he announced his acquisition of Twitter stock, the price would rise.) But he never announced it, keeping the stock price low, so he bought a large number of shares at a low price)
On April 14, Musk offered to buy Twitter's issued common stock for $43 billion in cash at $54.20 per share.
On April 15, Twitter's board of directors unveiled the killer: the Poison Pill Project.
As soon as the poison pill plan came out, Twitter basically wrote it on its face that it would rather die than yield — because the name of the plan was derived from the poison pill that the captive swallowed poison and committed suicide.
Meaning, if you want to buy me, I will "commit suicide by poisoning"...
The official name of the poison pill plan is "equity dilution anti-acquisition measures": when the company faces a hostile takeover, in order to retain its controlling interest, it will greatly increase the acquisition cost of the other party by drinking and quenching its thirst – even if there will be more hidden dangers in the future.
It is better to have hidden dangers, which also reduces the willingness of the other party to acquire.
This time, Twitter's board announced that once Musk holds more than 15%, then all shareholders except Musk can buy Twitter's newly issued shares at half price.
In this way, a large number of new shares can be injected into the market, diluting Musk's shares, while giving other shareholders more voting rights.
And Musk, in the face of Twitter's threat, directly and publicly shouted: "Twitter refuses to sell? Then I still have Plan B. ”
"I have enough money."
This sentence was spoken by the world's richest man, and it is indeed quite a deterrent, and my superpower is the ability to banknotes.
Within a week, Musk directly came up with $46.5 billion in financing, cash.
Premium? Overflow 3 billion also give you a harvest!
He called out Twitter investors on public platforms, called out to the board of directors to exert pressure, and met privately with other Twitter shareholders to convince them of their determination to consider proposing an acquisition proposal directly to shareholders.
In the end, Twitter's board had to... The service is soft.
I wanted to say no, but he gave too much...
11 days later, $44 billion, sold.
As soon as the news of Musk's acquisition came out, inside the Twitter company, crazy...
According to the Daily Mail, Twitter sent a notice to all employees: you don't have to worry about losing your job immediately, there is still a six-month safety period, and all businesses will operate as usual until the acquisition is completed.
In other words, six months later, as soon as the acquisition is completed, no one knows what will happen...
Twitter's internal chat room, directly fried out.
One employee said: "I feel like I'm going to throw up, I don't want to work for the company musk is the boss of." ”
Another Twitter employee said: "I don't know what to do... Oh my god my phone exploded... We'll meet at 5 p.m. and the CEO will tell us about it. (It = Musk)
"I hate him, why would he do that?"
Another said, "Didn't the company say to want a 'poison pill project'?" How did it suddenly become like this? ”
The courtiers are about to fight to the death, why did Your Majesty surrender first!!
Musk claims to open source the algorithm, make it public to the public, and increase trust.
Some Twitter employees posted an empty new public repo (code collection repository) called "Algorithm" on Twitter's Github account, which came to Yin and Yang Musk.
"He's just a wayward little boy, he doesn't know anything about our policies, what we do, and his description of our algorithm is really crazy..."
"Everybody's going to be driven crazy by him..."
But on the other hand, the world has been tweeting for a long time, And Musk's wayward acquisition of money is still very popular with ordinary people.
In particular, Musk's new official took office three times, announcing that he would rectify the maladies of Twitter's chaotic bans, all spam, and many posting robots.
Under Twitter's internal employee fryer news, the comments are basically in favor of Musk:
"It's not a hostile takeover, the bid is fair, and it's strange that shareholders don't accept it." Twitter just needs a big change of blood. ”
"Musk, my hero! I love him a little more every day. ”
"If he can really do what he claims to be free speech, it will be a significant watershed for Twitter."
Why say he was a "hostile takeover"? He's buying well. ”
But on the other hand, for a question that everyone is very concerned about:
Will Trump come back after Musk buys Twitter?
Trump gave the answer first: Even if Musk buys, I will not return to Twitter.
When you were going to separate, you were separated...
The septuagenarian was heartbroken and did not come back at all.
But having said that, Trump said: "I would love Musk to buy Twitter because he's a good guy who will improve Twitter." ”
He did not answer whether he had contact with Musk, but sources said Trump and Musk had a good relationship.
So, what the future holds, I really don't know...
In short, this acquisition of Musk is a business war that shines into reality and wins a cool.
Twitter resisted the direct pill plan before, and after 11 days it made a 180° change and directly agreed to the acquisition.
Banknote ability, is really very good to use ah...