Elon Musk’s proposed $43 billion bid for Twitter has the potential to be made official soon and he may have a plan for the future of the social media platform.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO and founder, Elon Musk, recently flexed his entrepreneurial ventures by acquiring the social media giant, Twitter. Reuters confirmed today that Musk’s $43 billion bid could be considered by Twitter’s board and there may be an official announcement coming later today or in the coming days.
Last year, the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, stepped down to explore his own ventures and had Parag Agrawal step up to the CEO role in November 2021. While Agrawal had new financial goals leading into 2023, it seems that Elon Musk has his own plans to bolster the struggling platform.
The $54.20-per-share deal could crumble in the last transaction meeting but all evidence points to the deal being solidified. This Twitter takeover deal was kept very hush-hush from Musk in terms of the details as another billionaire, Warren Buffet, expressed his negotiation talks on acquisitions, not particularly on the tweeting platform. Twitter’s shares jumped 3.9% to $50.84 as the market opened this morning.
While this may appear as a proposed acquisition out of nowhere, the social media’s board initially invited Musk to join the board. Musk rejected the offer and that is when he filed a formal takeover bid. It was at that point that Twitter rejected the bid as a move that seemed like the board was stalling for time to examine more options or an alternative offer—as stated by Wedbush Securities analyst, Dan Ives.
Musk also tweeted a list of changes, voicing improvements he would make to the platform. One of the issues he addressed was the “free speech” problems he witnessed. He explained how he wants to get rid of ads and spam bots.
Another big proponent Musk made was making the service’s algorithm open source, which would show users why things trend the way they do and why certain tweets end up showing on each user’s timelines. His goals are to essentially make the social platform more transparent to users. With no ads and making the company private, this could mean that Twitter could be a subscription-based service.
While representatives from Twitter and Musk continue to secure and finalize a deal with agreed terms, no comments have been made by either party. “While the Board approved the poison pill which essentially gave them time to find a ‘white knight’ and second bidder, likely they are now empty handed,” Ives said Sunday.
With the board running out of options and time, this could be the end of an era for Twitter as Musk’s deal is in its final act. Bloomberg Intelligence technology analyst, Mandeep Singh, shared their thoughts, “Twitter’s hand could force it to announce a deal with Elon Musk, given its near-term results likely face headwinds from a sharp slowdown in brand ad spending.”
