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Notably, like he did before selling his Tesla stocks, Musk has already conducted a Twitter Poll titled: “Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board” with 83 per cent of the 2.9 million participants voting ‘Yes’, with the remaining 17% voting ‘No’. The proposal of Twitter’s board to block Musk from buying the company out could also go either way, given that the billionaire could mobilise a proxy fight with thousands of retail investors backing him in voting the current set of directors out, Levine wrote. So I was forced to concede to the SEC, unlawfully”. On Thursday at a TED Event in Vancouver, speaking about his plans to take Tesla private Musk said: “I was told by the banks that if I did not agree to settle with the SEC, they would cease providing working capital and Tesla would go bankrupt immediately…so that’s like having a gun to your child’s head. There’s also the question of Musk having to clear the SEC hurdles - an organisation that has had run-ins with Musk several times in the past with the regulator prevailing over the billionaire. But to finance his purchase of the rest of Twitter’s shares would mean tapping into his remaining $55 billion worth of Tesla shares. Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine wrote in an opinion piece that funding the 9.2 per cent buy-in would’ve been much easier given that Musk only just diluted Tesla stocks worth nearly $16 billion. However, there are still question marks over how he would fund the $43 billion purchase. Since Musk does not have any presence in the social media space, his proposal to buy Twitter is unlikely to raise any antitrust flags. Musk insisted on Thursday that his plan was triggered by the realization that “having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important for the future of the civilization”.

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His objective for this move to take over Twitter is also fuzzy, including his promise of ensuring that it lives up to its potential as a “platform for free speech”.

But his offer, which seemed to have gotten a clear thumbs down from the investors, raises multiple questions, including whether he’s serious in the first place and does he have the funds to do this? His says that his latest plan is to buy Twitter outright and then take it private “to restore its commitment” to what he calls “free speech”. In the Twitter case, the management is represented by the platform’s executive board which has indicated that it is viewing the Musk offer as “hostile”. Don't Miss | Twitter CEO tells employees company not ‘held hostage’ by Elon Musk offer: ReportĪ takeover bid is deemed as hostile when a company attempts to acquire another against the wishes of that unit’s management.

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