Elon Musk Declares Twitter Board's Interest 'Not Aligned' With Holders, Says Look Out For Other Bidders

Zinger Key Points
  • Elon Musk says the economic interests of the Twitter Board are not aligned with shareholders. 
  • Musk was the largest shareholder of Twitter stock for a moment, and was quickly replaced by Vanguard Group.

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Sunday said that the Twitter Inc TWTR board should be more concerned about other potential bidders than himself. 

Last week, Musk offered to pay $54.20 per share of Twitter, $41 billion for buying the social network in its entirety. 

Responding to a tweet by a user about whether the Twitter board’s plan could amount to “criminal negligence,” Musk said the plan could be “more of a concern about other potential bidders” instead of “just” him.

Unhappy with the offer, the Twitter Board imposed a so-called “poison pill” to prevent Musk’s takeover attempt.

Also Read: This Fund Manager Thinks Musk Will Make a Sweetened Bid For Twitter On 4/20

On Friday, Twitter set up a shareholder rights plan that could prevent Musk’s acquisition bid. 

The plan is exercisable if a party acquires 15% of the stock without prior approval, and seeks to ensure that anyone taking control of Twitter through open market accumulation pays all shareholders an appropriate control premium.

Replying to another tweet talking about Board members’ stock holdings, Musk said that with the departure of Jack Dorsey, the Board held very few shares of the company.  

Musk added that the economic interests of the Board are not aligned with shareholders. 

In response to tweets about board members who could make or break the social media giant, Dorsey said it's been an ongoing problem at Twitter.

Early in April, Musk said he had become Twitter's largest shareholder by having 73.5 million shares. A day later his disclosed stake dropped to 73.1 million shares or 9.1% of the company.

Musk was quickly dethroned as the company's largest shareholder when a new SEC filing showed that Vanguard Group is now the biggest shareholder of Twitter with a 10.3% stake in the company. That's 82.4 million shares, worth $3.7 billion as of Friday's close.

Also Read: Elon Musk's 'Funding Secured' Tweets Ruled False By A Judge: Court Filing Released

Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Oberhaus on Flickr

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