Elon Musk Twitter Deal - LIVE UPDATES: From weed joke to agreed deal: Inside Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter buyout
Elon Musk Twitter Deal Latest News, LIVE UPDATES: Elon Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter Inc for $44 billion cash on Monday in a transaction that will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world`s richest person. Here are all the LIVE UPDATES and Latest News on what CEO Parag Agrawal told worried Twitter employees; Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey's tweets and more:-
Elon Musk Twitter Deal Latest News, LIVE UPDATES: Elon Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter Inc for $44 billion cash on Monday in a transaction that will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world`s richest person. Here are all the LIVE UPDATES and Latest News on what CEO Parag Agrawal told worried Twitter employees; Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey's tweets and more:-
Latest Updates
From weed joke to agreed deal: Inside Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter buyout
(Reuters) - Twitter Inc and its advisers were not sure at first how seriously to take him.
Elon Musk`s $54.20-per-share offer price for the social media company on April 14 contained the digits 420, a reference to a trope for smoking marijuana. Financing documents he submitted last week in support of his bid were signed on April 20, abbreviated as 4/20.
Such references harken back to his 2018 "funding secured" tweet stating that he was considering taking electric car maker Tesla Inc private for $420 per share. Tesla and Musk subsequently agreed to pay $20 million each to settle charges that he misled investors.
Musk said he rounded the price up to $420 because he had recently learned about the number`s significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend would find it funny, "which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price," according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-pr2018-219.pdf filed at the time.
Discussions with Twitter turned serious, however, when the San Francisco-based company`s advisers, including bankers at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Allen & Co, started poring through Musk`s financing documents in support of his $44 billion bid on April 21.
Many of the biggest Wall Street banks, led by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp and Barclays Plc, committed to providing $25.5 billion in debt, some of it secured against Twitter and some of it tied to Musk`s Tesla stock. Musk himself committed another $21 billion in cash.
Twitter`s board, which was still reviewing Musk`s bid after he had presented it with little detail a week earlier, went into overdrive. It rushed to complete an analysis to assign a value on its standalone plan which Parag Agrawal, five months into his role as Twitter chief executive, was delivering on. And it asked its bankers to triple-check if there was any other bidder who could offer more than Musk.
This account of how Musk`s deal for Twitter came together is based on interviews with four people familiar with the negotiations, who requested anonymity to discuss them.
Representatives for Musk, Twitter and the banks either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
Overseeing deal negotiations for Twitter was its board chairman Bret Taylor, who is also co-chief executive of Salesforce. It became clear to Twitter`s board directors there was no white knight, as technology and media companies fretted about the potential antitrust risk, while private equity firms could not saddle the company with enough debt to juice returns, given its limited cash flow.
Musk had said he did not care about the economics of the deal "at all" and was pursuing Twitter to advance free speech, disillusioned by many of its platform moderation decisions.
His bid was not rich by historical standards. While it came with a 38% premium to where Twitter shares were trading before April 4, when he emerged as a Twitter shareholder, the stock had traded higher than his offer for most of last year.
Twitter`s bankers projected, however, that even if the company did as well as last year, investors would value it less, because the advertising market in the social media world had become more price-competitive. The board did not believe Agrawal could bring the stock back to $54.20 anytime soon.
That view was shared by many Twitter shareholders, including big active mutual funds, who reached out to Twitter after Musk showed he had financing for his offer. These shareholders asked the company not to let the opportunity for a deal slip away.
If Twitter ignored Musk, some of the investors threatened to side with him in a tender offer that he had said he was exploring. A poison pill that Twitter had adopted would protect the company from a takeover, but it would not spare it from publicly losing the support of its shareholders.
BLEAK BACKDROP
The stars aligned for Musk in more ways. Technology stocks plunged for most of April amid concerns over inflation and an economic slowdown - a bleak backdrop for Twitter.
Musk also had some allies on Twitter`s board. Egon Durban, the co-head of private equity firm Silver Lake who partnered with Musk on his abandoned bid for Tesla, serves on Twitter`s board. Jack Dorsey, another board director and the company`s former CEO, shares Musk`s passion for cryptocurrencies and has often exchanged compliments with him online.
"Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness," Dorsey tweeted on Monday, adding that taking Twitter "back from Wall Street is the correct first step."
Twitter`s advisers met with Musk on Sunday and tried to convince him to raise his offer, but he stuck to his position that the $54.20-per-share offer was his "best and final".
As a small concession, Musk agreed to offer Twitter a chunky break-up fee in the event he changed his mind and walked away. The exact fee is expected to be disclosed in regulatory filings on Tuesday.
In the small hours of Monday, the two sides agreed to a deal, and Twitter`s board met to approve it later in the day. Twitter shares, which had ended trading at $45.08 the day that Musk unveiled his bid, closed at $51.70, only a small discount to the deal price.
Four years after walking away from a $72 billion acquisition of Tesla he once contemplated, the world`s richest person now has a mega deal to brag about.
"I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means," Musk tweeted on Monday.
Explainer: What's next now that Twitter agreed to Musk bid?
San Francisco, Apr 26 (AP) Twitter's acceptance of Elon Musk's roughly USD44 billion takeover bid brings the billionaire Tesla CEO one step closer to owning the social media platform.
The deal is expected to close sometime this year. But before that, shareholders still have to weigh in, as well as regulators in the US and in countries where Twitter does business, before the deal is completed.
The process is off to a good start for Musk, given that Twitter's board has unanimously approved his offer and is recommending shareholders do the same.
Upon announcing the deal Monday, Twitter noted that the bid, which represents a 38 per cent premium to the company's closing stock price on April 1, is a ?substantial cash premium? and would be ?the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders.?
When Twitter's board adopted an anti-takeover provision known as a ?poison pill? just 10 days ago, the move was widely seen as a telltale sign that the directors were gearing up to rebuff Musk's opening offer or perhaps seek another suitor willing to pay more.
But the battleground shifted dramatically late last week when Musk disclosed he had lined up USD46.5 billion ? including USD21 billion of his personal fortune ? to pay for the purchase. Musk said other investors could contribute to the financing.
The locked-in financing not only underscored the seriousness of Musk's pursuit, but also appeared to open the door to other large Twitter shareholders interested in hearing more about his plans for the San Francisco company.
The details of those conversations aren't known, but Musk could point to a more than 20-year history building and running several businesses ? most notably as the longtime CEO of Tesla. The electric car maker is currently valued at USD1 trillion -- roughly 25 times more than Twitter.
?I think there is nothing better for Twitter than Elon Musk buying it and ideally replacing the board, and also doubling down on investments into products and new revenue-generating sources," said John Meyer, a technology entrepreneur and investor. ?Musk has the track record that he can do the impossible."
It would be easy to see why other Twitter shareholders might welcome a shake-up, as well as an opportunity to cash out of their investment. Before Musk disclosed his 9 per cent stake in Twitter earlier this month, the shares were trading below USD40 ? not that much more it its USD26 price when Twitter went public in November 2013. Since then, the tech-driven Nasdaq has more than tripled, even after a recent downturn.
Twitter has been a laggard because the company has struggled to consistently post profits while generating lackluster revenue growth compared to the two dominant forces in digital advertising, Google and Facebook.
Meanwhile, Tesla's stock is now worth nearly 300 times more than when it went public in 2010. And after struggling to make money for more than a decade, the automaker is now extremely profitable with net income of USD3.3 billion during the first three months of this year alone.
As is customary once a company agrees to be acquired, the buyer gets to take a closer look at its books to make sure there aren't any red flags that haven't come up via the company's public filings.
This step in the process isn't likely to cause any obstacles for the deal, said Angelo Zino, tech analyst at CFRA.
?He's acquiring this company, not from a financial perspective,? Zino said. ?He's going to do what he wants with it and he's probably going to look to make significant changes to the business model of the company.?
Last year, Twitter generated USD5 billion in revenue, with USD2.8 billion from the US and the rest earned overseas, Zino said. The Federal Trade Commission in the US, or the European Commission in the EU, are among regulatory agencies that may review the proposed Twitter buyout.
The main issues the agencies generally focus on are how the sale of a company could affect competition in an industry, or whether it violates antitrust laws.
These reviews can take months, or longer, but generally represent more of a potential hurdle when two companies in the same industry are combining, or in the case of a single buyer, whether ownership already has a large stake in companies within the same industry.
Neither Tesla, nor Musk's other company, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, are social media platforms, so antitrust concerns are not expected to arise when regulators review the deal, analysts said.
?We do not expect any major regulatory hurdles to the deal getting done as this soap opera now ends with Musk owning Twitter,? Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a research note Monday.
The deal is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of Twitter shareholders. Twitter hasn't announced the timing of a shareholder vote, though the company's annual meeting is set for May 25, which could offer a convenient time to poll shareholders.
A company can elect to hold a shareholder vote at any time, even before regulators have finished reviewing a proposed takeover.
At this early stage, it's unclear what will happen to Twitter's current board or management team if the deal is completed, but Musk has made it abundantly clear that he believes the company has been poorly run. That assessment is a strong indication that Musk's makeover will also include a purge of Twitter's top ranks. (AP)
Musk gets Twitter for $44 billion, to cheers and fears of ''free speech'' plan
(Reuters) - Elon Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter Inc for $44 billion cash on Monday in a transaction that will shift control of the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world`s richest person.
It is a seminal moment for the 16-year-old company, which emerged as one of the world`s most influential public squares and now faces a string of challenges.
Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, has criticized Twitter`s moderation. He wants Twitter`s algorithm for prioritizing tweets to be public and objects to giving too much power on the service to corporations that advertise.
Political activists expect that a Musk regime will mean less moderation and reinstatement of banned individuals including former President Donald Trump. Conservatives cheered the prospect of fewer controls while some human rights activists voiced fears of a rise in hate speech.
Musk has also advocated user-friendly tweaks to the service, such as an edit button and defeating "spam bots" that send overwhelming amounts of unwanted tweets.
Discussions over the deal, which last week appeared uncertain, accelerated over the weekend after Musk wooed Twitter shareholders with financing details of his offer.
Under pressure, Twitter started negotiating with Musk to buy the company at his proposed $54.20 per share price.
"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," Musk said in a statement.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey weighed in on the deal late on Monday with a series of tweets that thanked both Musk and current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal for "getting the company out of an impossible situation."
"Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step," he said.
Twitter shares rose 5.7% on Monday to finish at $51.70. The deal represents a near 40% premium to the closing price the day before Musk disclosed he had bought a more than 9% stake.
Twitter`s stock market value has lagged rivals https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/myvmnykyjpr/Pasted%20image%201...
Even so, the offer is well below the $70 range where Twitter was trading last year.
"I think if the company were given enough time to transform, we would have made substantially more than what Musk is currently offering," said Jonathan Boyar, managing director at Boyar Value Group, which holds a stake in Twitter.
However, he added, "If the public markets do not properly value a company, an acquirer eventually will."
Musk’s move continues a tradition of billionaires` buying control of influential media platforms, including Jeff Bezos’ 2013 acquisition of the Washington Post.
Twitter said Musk secured $25.5 billion of debt and margin loan financing and is providing a $21 billion equity commitment.
Musk, who is worth $268 billion according to Forbes, has said he is not primarily concerned with the economics of Twitter.
"Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don`t care about the economics at all," he said in a recent public talk.
OUTSIZED IMPORTANCE
Musk is chief executive of both electric car maker Tesla Inc and aerospace company SpaceX, and it is not clear how much time he will devote to Twitter or what he will do.
"Once the deal closes, we don`t know which direction the platform will go," Agrawal told employees on Monday.
Edward Moya, an analyst at currency broker OANDA, said in an email to clients the deal was "great news for Twitter shareholders as it doesn’t seem like the company was going to get things right anytime soon."
But he also said: "Tesla shareholders can’t be happy that Musk will have to divert even more attention away from winning the EV (electric vehicle) race."
Still, Musk`s 84 million-strong Twitter account is seen as an important, free public relations and marketing tool for Tesla.
The Twitter transaction was approved by the company`s board and is now subject to a shareholder vote. No regulatory hurdles are expected, analysts said.
Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said the company`s board of directors had its back "against the wall" once Musk detailed his financing package and no other bidders emerged.
Although it is only about a 10th of the size of far larger social media platforms like Meta Platforms Inc`s Facebook, Twitter has been credited with helping spawn the Arab Spring uprising and accused of playing a role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.
After Twitter banned Trump over concerns around incitement of violence following the U.S. Capitol attack by his supporters, Musk tweeted: "A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech."
Trump, whose company is building a rival to Twitter called Truth Social, said in a Fox News interview on Monday that he will not return to Twitter.
The White House declined on Monday to comment on Musk`s deal, but said President Joe Biden has long been concerned about the power of social media platforms.
"Our concerns are not new," said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki, adding that the platforms need to be held accountable. "The president has long talked about his concerns about the power of social media platforms, including Twitter and others, to spread misinformation."
Donald Trump won''t join ''boring'' Twitter
(IANS) Former US President Donald Trump has decided not to join Twitter despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk buying it, saying "Twitter has become very boring".
Trump said that he will not return to Twitter and will instead use his own `TRUTH Social` as the only social media platform.
"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH. I hope Elon makes improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH," Trump was quoted as saying in a Fox News report late on Monday.
Trump said he will begin "TRUTHing" over the next week.
The former President announcement came moments after Musk won a takeover bid to take Twitter private for $44 billion at $54.20 a share.
"Twitter`s become very boring. They`ve gotten rid of a lot of good voices on Twitter, a lot of their conservative voices," he said.
Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat following the Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021.
"This is a platform for my voice. TRUTH is a platform for my voice and for my supporters," Trump said.
"But I want everybody to come over to TRUTH -- conservatives, liberals, whatever."
He did not comment if he was in contact with Musk.
"I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means," Musk had tweeted.
Jeff Bezos trolls Elon Musk, tests his ''free speech'' commitment
(IANS) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday took the first test of Elon Musk`s commitment to allow free speech on the platform, posting that Tesla`s business interests in China could give the government leverage over Twitter via its new owner.
A New York Times reporter tweeted that "After 2009, when China banned Twitter, the government there had almost no leverage over the platform. That may have just changed".
Bezos replied: "Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?"
The Amazon founder further said that his own answer to "this question is probably not".
"The more likely outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter," Bezos said.
"But we`ll see. Musk is extremely good at navigating this kind of complexity," he kept trolling the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.
Musk, who is worth $282 billion and over $100 billion richer than Bezos, has frequently criticised the latter on Twitter.
From calling him `Copycat` to after Bezos announced plans to launch a new satellite-based broadband service to trolling him on the micro-blogging platform, Musk is facing fierce competition in the affordable satellite-based internet market from Amazon.
Amazon this month announced the biggest rocket deal in the commercial space industry`s history, signing a pact with three rocket companies for up to 83 launches under its Project Kuiper internet satellites.
The contracts total up to 83 launches over a five-year period, providing capacity for Amazon to deploy the majority of its 3,236-satellite constellation.
Just before Twitter announced it is accepting Musk`s $44 billion buyout bid, the world`s richest man tweeted: "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means."
Will Bezos remain on Twitter or whether Musk will let him stay? Only time will tell.
Parag Agrawal to get Rs $42 mn if sacked, says Twitter's future ''uncertain''
(IANS) Parag Agrawal, the Indian-origin CEO of Twitter, will approximately get $42 million if Tesla CEO Elon Musk decides not to retain him at the helm.
According to research firm Equilar, he will get an estimated $42 million if terminated within 12 months of being appointed as the CEO of the company.
Agrawal took over from Jack Dorsey in November 2021.
After Musk bought Twitter for nearly $44 billion, Agrawal reportedly told employees at a town hall meeting that the future of the micro-blogging platform is now "uncertain".
He said that no layoffs were planned at this time, but admitted that he does not have all the answers as "this is a period of uncertainty" and he does not know which direction "the platform will go".
Twitter will become a privately-held company after the takeover deal is closed, and the company`s board will be dissolved, according to Bret Taylor, independent board chair at Twitter.
Musk has already said that he doesn`t have faith in the management of Twitter.
The decision to sell the platform to the Tesla CEO also signals that the board is somehow not convinced in Agrawal`s capabilities, as the company is not making enough profits.
"Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important," Agrawal said in a statement late on Monday.
Agrawal was previously Twitter`s chief technology officer (CTO) and his total compensation for 2021 was $30.4 million, according to reports.
Don't know what direction Twitter will go in: CEO Parag Agrawal tells anxious employees after Elon Musk buys social media giant
New York, Apr 26 (PTI) Twitter's India-born CEO Parag Agrawal has told worried employees that he doesn't know what direction this company will go in once the whopping USD 44 billion deal, which will take the social media giant private, closes with new owner billionaire Elon Musk.
The remarks by Agrawal, who took over the helm of the social networking giant just five months ago, came during a meeting with Twitter employees on Monday afternoon after the company said it had accepted Musk's offer to buy it for about USD 44 billion.
It's important to acknowledge that all of you have many different feelings about what is happening, The New York Times newspaper quoted Agrawal as saying.
The American daily, which listened to the meeting, said that Agrawal told employees that he estimated the deal might take three to six months to complete.
In this moment, we operate Twitter as we always have," he said, adding that how we run the company, the decisions we make, and the positive changes we drive that will be on us, and under our control.
Uncertainty now hangs over the fate of Twitter employees, who voiced concern over layoffs in the wake of the acquisition by Musk.
The NYT report added that it is unclear how hands-on Musk plans to be at Twitter.
Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos asks will Musk''s Twitter deal signal change in its China content policy - Reuters
Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos has asked in a post on Twitter if Elon Musk`s $44 billion cash deal to buy Twitter gives China "a bit of leverage over the town square".
Twitter is blocked in China, where Musk, the world`s richest person, has key business interests.
Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist and has criticised Twitter`s content moderation policy, reached a deal on Monday to buy the social media platform.
Political activists expect that Musk`s ownership of Twitter will mean less moderation and reinstatement of banned individuals including former U.S. President Donald Trump.
There are also questions on what the deal will mean for Twitter`s China content policy as Musk`s Tesla relies heavily on China for production and vehicle sales.
"Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?" Bezos tweeted late on Monday.
"My own answer to this question is probably not. The more likely outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter," he later tweeted.
Musk said in a tweet on Monday: "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means."
How Twitter users reacted to Elon Musk's takeover
San Francisco, April 26 (IANS) After the news broke that Twitter`s board had agreed to accept Tesla CEO Elon Musk`s offer to buy the company, the micro-blogging site has been flooded with reactions and memes.
The Tesla CEO`s acquisition of Twitter has received a mixed reaction from the Twitterati.
"Elon Musk has finally set bluebird," a user wrote on the micro-blogging platform.
According to reports, there were more than 200,000 Google searches for "Elon Musk Twitter" on Monday.
"Remember that time @elonmusk told #unitednations that if they could prove they could end world hunger with $6 billion that he would donate it, so they gave him a detailed breakdown and he did not donate the money but then bought Twitter for $45 billion so he could add an edit button?" a user tweeted.
"Elon musk buying Twitter is not as big of a deal as some extreme accounts will make it. It is a good change though, people have the right to see opinions that contradict theirs, let the battle of ideas happen," another user wrote.
Several users also started speculating that the former US President Donald Trump`s account might be reinstated.
"Which banned account do you want to be restored most once @ElonMusk takes control?" a user wrote.
However, reports said that Trump has decided not to join Twitter despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk buying it, saying "Twitter has become very boring".
Trump said that he will not return to Twitter and will instead use his own `TRUTH Social` as the only social media platform.
"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH. I hope Elon makes improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH," Trump was quoted as saying in a Fox News report late on Monday.
Musk has caught an elusive Twitter bird for $44 billion, as the company`s board decided to give in to his takeover bid with his "best and final" offer.
Twitter announced late on Monday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Musk for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at nearly $44 billion.
Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately-held company.