Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, has called out the board of directors of Twitter for “objectively” not having their “economic interests” in line with the rest of the shareholders of the company.
Musk’s string of critical tweets was put forth in the wake of the board panicking and adopting a “poison pill” policy in an effort to try and push back or destabilize the billionaire’s hostile takeover of the company.
“Elon Musk is in for a bad time,” stated Chris Bakke, the founder of Laskie, in a post. “I’m not sure he’s prepared to take on a couple PhDs, a few MBAs, and a Baroness who use Twitter once a year (to reset their passwords) and collectively own 77 shares of the company.”
Included in Bakke’s posts was a screenshot that spelled out the ownership in the company for the rest of the board of directors members of Twitter.
“Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares!” Musk stated in a tweet responding to it on Saturday. “Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.”
Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2022
That very day, the tech titan stated his agreement with a post from entrepreneur David Sacks that claimed that outright rejection of Musk’s offer in regards to his buyout of Twitter would finally expose “corruption.”
“If the game is fair, Elon will buy Twitter,” stated Sacks in his tweet. “If the game is rigged, there will be some reason why he won’t be able to. We’re about to find out how deep the corruption goes.”
“Indeed,” stated Musk in response.
Indeed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2022
The board of directors for Twitter announced this past Friday that it plans to adopt a “poison pill” plan, intended to try and stop the attempts from Musk to buy the company by intentionally diluting his shares.
“A poison pill, devised by law firms in the 1980s to protect companies from corporate raiders, essentially lets a takeover target flood the market with new shares or allow existing shareholders other than the bidder to buy them at a discount,” explained the New York Times. “That means anyone trying to acquire the company must negotiate directly with the board.”
This poison pill will be officially activated “once any individual or a group of people working together buy 15 percent or more of Twitter’s shares,” highlighted the Times.
Earlier this past week, Musk put forth an offer to buy out 100% of Twitter at a rate of $54.20 per share in cash, a total sum that could easily be in excess of $40 billion. Musk highlighted via a formal letter addressed to Twitter’s Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor stating that he thinks the platform should be used to proliferate the ideal of free speech, read a filing with the SEC.
“Free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy” stated Musk, going on to add that this was his “best and final offer.”