Elon Musk has entered into a deal to acquire Twitter for approximately $44 billion, or $54.2 per share in cash. Commenting on the acquisition, Musk said in a statement, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”
He added, “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
Elon Musk acquires Twitter: Here’s the complete timeline
Elon Musk to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion
January 31st, 2022: Musk begins purchasing Twitter shares on January 31st, and by March 14th, 2022, he amasses a 5 percent stake. He misses the 10-day deadline to inform the Securities and Exchange Commission about the activity.
March 24th, 2022: Musk keeps his stake secret and starts critiquing Twitter. Some of his tweets read, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”, “Is a new platform needed?” People respond to such tweets by recommending Musk to acquire Twitter.
April 4th, 2022: Musk makes his stake public. He becomes a passive investor in the company and claims that he will not join Twitter’s board. The billionaire conducts a poll asking users whether they wanted an edit button to modify a published tweet. He gets invited by Twitter to join the board and is told that if he joins the board, he will not be able to acquire more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s shares.
April 9th, 2022: Musk becomes an active investor in the company. On April 9th, he declines the offer to join the company’s board of directors. However, the social media company waits for around 36 hours to see whether Musk changes his decision. During this time, Musk sends out some unusual tweets, including one in which he asks his 80 million+ followers if Twitter is dying and another in which he claims that popular personalities have a low frequency of tweets.
April 11th, 2022: Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal confirms that the billionaire has decided not to join the board. On April 13th, a Twitter investor filed a lawsuit against Musk for failing to disclose his 5 percent stake in the company. The delay had allowed him to get more Twitter shares at a lower price.
April 14th, 2022: Musk said that he is ready to pay $54.20 per share to acquire the company completely. The billionaire makes an all-cash offer that values Twitter at $43.4 billion. He files the offer with the SEC and confirms it to the public through a tweet.
April 15th, 2022: In a bid to prevent Musk from buying Twitter, the board of directors of the company rolls out a press release to confirm that it is adopting a limited duration shareholder rights plan. The so-called “poison pill” strategy allowed shareholders to purchase shares at a discount if any shareholder exceeds 15 percent ownership. The defence strategy was adopted by shareholders to dilute Musk’s stake.
April 16th, 2022: Musk claims that the Twitter board owns almost no shares by tweeting, “Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares! Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.”
April 18th, 2022: Musk hires Morgan Stanley to advise him on buying Twitter. He confirms that he is willing to spend his own money of around $15 billion to takeover the company. On April 21st, he lines up $46.5 billion to finance his acquisition. A filing with the SEC reveals that Musk plans to pay for the acquisition with $25.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in equity financing.
April 24th, 2022: Twitter board holds discussion with Musk.
April 25th, 2022: Twitter confirms that it has accepted Musk’s offer to acquire the company at $54.20 per share, valuing it at roughly $44 billion. Once the acquisition is complete, Twitter will become a private entity and its shares will not be traded on any stock exchange.