Twitter board chats Elon Musk over $43b takeover bid

The board of American microblogging and social networking service Twitter has reportedly met Elon Musk over the weekend to discuss his $43bn (£33.6bn) offer to buy the social media platform.

After Musk first revealed his bid, Twitter’s management announced a “poison pill” strategy to push off a potential hostile buyout.

A takeover bid is considered to be hostile when a person or business tries to take over another company against the wishes of the target firm’s management hence a ‘poison pill’ is adopted.

The move stops anyone from having more than a 15% stake in the company by allowing others to buy additional shares in the firm at a discount.

Musk, who owns a more than 9% stake in Twitter, has lined up a $46.5bn financing package for his bid, according to a regulatory filing.

Musk says he plans to finance his bid with his personal money and also the backing of US lender Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions.

And details of how Musk was planning to secure his funding made Twitter’s 11-member board seriously consider a possible deal, according to Reuters, the New York Times and Bloomberg reports on Sunday night, April 24.

The reports add that after Musk’s disclosure of his plans for the social media platform, a number of Twitter shareholders reportedly contacted the company’s board urged it not to miss the opportunity for a potential deal.

Discussions between the billionaire Tesla Inc. chief executive officer and Twitter’s board about a takeover at $54.20 per share continued overnight into the early hours of Monday, the people said. Shares of Twitter jumped 3.9% to $50.84 as trading got underway in New York.

Representatives for Twitter and Musk didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the parties could reach an agreement as soon as this week, citing unidentified people.