Advertisers have long been nervous about interacting on the site, new management could shake it up even more.
Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company’s biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter’s stock. He called that price his best and final offer, although the billionaire provided no details on financing.
Musk, Twitter’s biggest shareholder, is free to buy more stock in the company and could use the platform against itself. Some employees are dismayed.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted the news, which followed a weekend of Musk tweets suggesting possible changes to Twitter, including making the site ad-free. Nearly 90% of Twitter’s 2021 revenue came from ads. “Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective on 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he would not be joining the board,” Agrawal wrote in a reposted note originally sent to Tesla employees. “I believe this is for the best.”
The billionaire has criticized Twitter publicly about its commitment to free speech. He’s also run into trouble on the platform as the CEO of Tesla after financial regulators found he had posted inaccurate information about the company. He now owns 9% of the company and is barred from owning more than 14.9% of Twitter’s outstanding stock while he sits on the board, Twitter Inc. said in a Tuesday regulatory filing.
Exclusives
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk in a response to another user on Twitter said he is giving “serious thought” to starting a rival social media to Twitter. Asked whether he’d consider building a platform with an “open source algorithm” where “free speech and adhering to free speech is given top priority” and “where propaganda is very minimal,” Musk tweeted that he is giving it “serious thought.”
Endeavor Group Holdings, owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, revived it plans to go public after a botched attempt in 2019 and named Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk to its board.
