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‘Elon Musk,’ the name of the business magnate & founder of SpaceX is trending on Twitter as he has achieved his desire to acquire the social media giant. From secretly buying stake to criticising Twitter let’s take a look as we uncover the timeline of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.
Timeline of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover:
January 31: Elon Musk starts buying shares in Twitter
The world’s most-followed businessmen quietly started acquiring shares & had avoided making it public to not raise the price of shares.
March 14: Elon Musk acquires 5% stake in Twitter
Musk had acquired a 5% stake in Twitter. At this point, it was mandatory for Elon Musk to reveal the details to Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) but he missed the 10 days deadline.
March 24: Elon Musk criticizes Twitter
Musk started criticizing Twitter over free speech. “Worried about de facto bias in the Twitter algorithm having a major effect on public; Twitter algorithm should be open source,” tweeted Musk. In another tweet, Musk asked if Twitter violates its principles? “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
April 4: Elon Musk’s stake in Twitter becomes public
As his stake in Twitter became public, Musk started posting about his plans for Twitter & the ways to unlock its true potential. He was also invited to join the board of directors.
April 5: Elon Musk becomes an active investor
Earlier Musk had filed himself as a passive investor which raised speculations in public as to why a billionaire is acting as a passive investor. A day after Musk was offered a seat on the board he filed himself as an active investor.
April 9: Elon Musk rejects Twitter’s board seat
As per media reports, Musk declined the offer as he would not have been able to acquire more than a 14.9% stake in the company. He also criticized Twitter by asking his followers “Is Twitter dying?”
April 14: Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter
Musk offered to buy a 100% stake in Twitter for $43 billion. The offer was $54.20/share.
April 15: Twitter adopts poison pill
To prevent Musk from buying shares, the company board adopted a poison pill i.e. rights issue that allows shareholders to purchase the shares at a discount if an shareholder exceeds 15% ownership.
April 21: Elon Musk secures $46.5 billion in funding
Musk financed $25.5 billion from Morgan Stanley & other financial institutions & delivered his best offer of $46.5 billion to acquire Twitter.
April 24: Twitter board meets with Elon Musk
After the meet, the board began to take Musk’s offer seriously.
April 25: Elon Musk to buy 100% stake in Twitter
Twitter agreed to sell its shares to Elon Musk at the original offer of $54.20/share. The transaction will value around $44 billion. The deal is expected to close by this year.
