Elon Musk buys Twitter: A timeline of the takeover saga
Twitter and world’s richest person Elon Musk struck a $44 billion deal Monday delivering Tesla and SpaceX boss a personal control of one of the most influential social media platforms on the planet.
The publicly traded firm will now become a private company owned by Musk, who negotiated a purchase price of $54.20 per-share.
A timeline of Twitter takeover by Elon Musk:
Jan 31 to March 14: Musk accumulates 5 per cent stake in Twitter
Elon Musk reportedly started buying shares in Twitter from January 2022. By March 14, Musk had accumulated an over 5 per cent stake in the company as per news agency AP
March 24 onwards: Musk slams Twitter in series of tweets
Elon Musk began criticising Twitter for “failing to adhere to free speech.” “Worried about de facto bias in the Twitter algorithm having a major effect on the public; Twitter algorithm should be open source,” Musk tweeted on March 24.
A day later, in a poll post, Musk asked his followers: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
March 26: Elon Musk tweets, “New platform needed?”
April 4: Elon Musk buys 9.2 per cent shares of Twitter
Twitter confirmed that the billionaire entrepreneur has taken a 9.2 per cent share reportedly worth $2.9 billion. Musk later posted a poll the same day, asking users if they wanted an edit button. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal urged users to “vote carefully”as “The consequences of this poll will be important.”
April 5: Elon Musk becomes a board member
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Elon Musk was appointed to Twitter’s board in a series of tweets. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey welcomed Musk to Twitter’s board.
April 9: Musk asks, “Is Twitter dying?”
Elon Musk also tweeted to ask if the social media network was “dying” and to call out users such as singer Justin Bieber, Barack Obama and Katy Perry who are highly followed but rarely post.
April 10: Musk denies joining Twitter board
Twitter CEO Agrawal shared a note on Twitter saying that Musk rejected the company’s offer to join its board.
April 14: Musk offers to buy the whole company for $43 billion
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla said on April 14 that he is willing to pay $54.20 per share to buy 100% of the company in an all-cash offer that values the social network at $43.4 billion.
April 15: Twitter adopts “poison-pill”
Musk’s offer forced Twitter to adopt a ‘poison-pill provision’ on Friday to make it harder for Musk to acquire more shares and buy the social network.
April 18: Musk tweets Elvis Presley song “Love me tender”
Experts linked the word ‘tender’ to a potential tender offer by Musk to shareholders of microblogging giant Twitter in a bid to gain more control. A tender offer is a bid to buy some or all of the shareholders’ stock in a specific company publicly – at a higher price than the current value.
April 24: The board holds discussions with Musk
Talks between Twitter’s board and Musk took place Sunday and continued into the next day, Bloomberg reported. Musk reportedly presented his financial details to the board, after which the social media giant considered Musk’s offer seriously.
April 25: Elon Musk-Twitter $44 billion deal sealed
Elon Musk and Twitter finally seal the $44 billion deal in one of the biggest buyout offers of recent times.