Twitter Acquisition: A timeline of Elon Musk’s bumpy road

CNN Business
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board seat accepted and then unacceptable. just awesome $44 billion acquisition an offer With Uncertain financing. And a surprise in the early morning tweet Postponement of the dealTemporarily.

Even by the standards of Twitter, a company that has known a lot of chaos and dysfunction in its history, billionaire Elon Musk’s weeks-long effort to buy the company has proven uniquely turbulent — and there is no clear end in sight.

Should the deal be struck, it would put the world’s richest man in charge of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms. The acquisition has the potential to change not only Twitter itself but politics, the media and the tech industry. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has repeatedly stressed that his goal is to promote what he calls “freedom of speech” on the platform, which means all legal talk that complies with local laws in the markets in which Twitter operates. He has also said that he will Reversing the Twitter ban of ex-President Donald Trump.

But Musk, a hugely successful entrepreneur with a history of erratic behaviour,’s attempt to buy Twitter was viewed with some skepticism from the start. On the day he made his offer, Musk said, “I’m not sure I’ll actually be able to get it.” Some have questioned how he will finance the deal, especially in the form of shares in Tesla

(TSLA)Which is partly using to support his funding of the Twitter deal, and the broader technology sector It has declined in the ensuing weeks.

After Musk recently said he was pausing the deal so he could assess the amount of spam and fake accounts, it sparked speculation that the billionaire might be looking to renegotiate the deal — or back out altogether. His actions in the following days only reinforced this thinking.

Here’s a look back at the many twists and turns of one of the most high-profile tech deals in recent memory.

Musk quietly begins buying Twitter shares, building his stake in the company. But it will take months before he reveals this fact to the public.

Musk has a 5% stake in Twitter, but that fact was not revealed until the following month. Musk was required to disclose his stake within 10 days of crossing the 5% threshold, but he waited 21 days to do so. During that time, he continued to build his stake.

The billionaire begins to make explicit statements about the platform from his account. “Twitter’s algorithm should be open source,” he said bookswith a poll for users to vote “yes” or “no”.

The next day, Musk Tweets In another poll of his followers: “Freedom of expression is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you think Twitter adheres so firmly to this principle?”

Musk is reaching out to Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey to “discuss the future direction of social media,” according to one company. deposit The company later developed it. It’s common knowledge that tech founders have little to no Billionaire Bromance On and off Twitter.

Twitter’s board and some members of its leadership team are meeting with representatives from law firm Wilson Soncini and JP Morgan to discuss the possibility of Musk joining the company’s board, according to Later filing stock. Dorsey is said to have told the board that “he and Mr. Musk were friends,” according to the report.

At the meeting, the Twitter board discussed Musk’s desire to agree to “freezing terms,” ​​according to the filing. This would “limit his public statements regarding Twitter, including making unsolicited public proposals to acquire Twitter (but not private offers) without prior approval of the Twitter Board of Directors.”

musk open To be the largest single shareholder in Twitter, with a stake of more than 9% in the company.

News of the purchase is sending the social media company’s shares up more than 20% in early trading and sparking a flurry of speculation about how Musk might push for changes to the platform.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces Musk . will join Twitter board of directors. “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it has become clear to us that he will bring great value to our board of directors,” Agrawal said. Says In a post on Twitter.

As part of the appointment, Musk agrees to hold no more than 14.9% of the company’s stock while he remains on the board. His term on the board is set to last until 2024, according to A regulatory deposit.

Agrawal announced that Musk had decided Not joining The board after all. “I think this is the best,” Agrawal wrote in A letter Twitter team.

This reversal opens the door for Musk to take a bigger stake in the company — and releases him for tweeting his many thoughts about the company.

Musk stuns the industry through make an attempt He acquired all the shares in Twitter he did not own, worth $41.4 billion. The cash offer represents a 38% premium to the company’s closing price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk revealed that he had become the company’s largest shareholder.

“I invested in Twitter because I believe in its potential to be a platform for freedom of expression worldwide, and I believe that freedom of expression is a societal necessity for a functioning democracy. However, since I made my investment, I now realize that the company will not thrive and will not serve this societal necessity in its current form. Twitter needs to turn into a private company, “Musk He writes In his presentation letter. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”

Twitter’s board of directorspoison pill‘, a limited-term shareholder equity plan that makes it difficult for Musk to take over the company.

musk . liness $46.5 billion to fund the deal, including two debt commitment letters from Morgan Stanley and other unnamed financial institutions and one letter of commitment from himself, according to a regulatory filing.

The billionaire also reveals that he did not receive an official response from Twitter a week after the takeover offer. He said he was “seeking to negotiate” a specific acquisition agreement and “is ready to begin these negotiations immediately” – a clear reflection of his statement in his takeover offer letter that it would be his “best and last” offer.

Although he is the world’s richest person, much of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stocks, and some followers of the company predict it may be difficult for Musk to raise debt against the historically volatile stock.

Twitter Announces It agreed to sell itself to Musk in a deal estimated to be around $44 billion. At a conference later today, Mask describe its presentation To buy Twitter in distinctly sweeping terms like it’s about the “future of civilization,” not just making money.

at comprehensive meeting That afternoon, Twitter employees raised questions about everything from what the deal meant for their compensation to whether former US President Donald Trump would be allowed to return to the platform.

Frada reveals musk Sold $8.5 billion of his Tesla stock in the three days after Twitter’s board of directors approved the sale at an average of $883.09 per share. The filings did not reveal the reason for the sale, but it appears that Musk was raising funds to buy Twitter.

musk Raise another $7 billion in financing the transaction. New investors include Oracle founder Larry Ellison, cryptocurrency platform Binance, and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, according to deposit.

musk aims to increase Twitter’s annual revenue reached $26.4 billion by 2028, up from $5 billion last year, according to a New York Times report, citing Musk’s packaged presentation to investors. To achieve this lofty goal, Musk intends to boost Twitter’s subscription revenue and build a payments business while reducing the company’s reliance on ad sales, according to the report.

Musk confirms what many have assumed for weeks: It will reverse Twitter Trump ban If the deal is to buy the company.

“I think it wasn’t right to ban Donald Trump, I think that was wrong,” Musk said. “I would like to reverse the permanent ban. … Banning Trump from Twitter does not end Trump’s voice, it will amplify him among the right which is why it is so morally wrong and totally stupid.”

Twitter Confirms to CNN Business That the platform pauses most hiring and repackaging, except for “business-critical” roles, and rolls back other non-labor costs prior to acquisition. In addition, Twitter says general manager of consumers, Kayvon Beykpour, and leader of revenue products, Bruce Falck, are leaving the company.

musk Tweets That the deal is pending, link it to Reuters report Almost two weeks ago, the latest disclosure from Twitter about the amount of spam and fake accounts. The number cited in the report, however, is in line with previous quarterly disclosures.

“Twitter deal is temporarily on hold pending account support details that spam/fake accounts already account for less than 5% of users,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

Shares of the social media site fell after Musk’s announcement, dropping more than 10% at the market open. Two hours after the suspension was announced, Musk says he is still intent on buying Twitter. ‘Still committed to the acquisition’ books.

Later in the day, Musk said his team was testing Twitter numbers and “picked 100 as the sample size number, because that’s what Twitter uses to calculate

Musk wrote on Twitter that Twitter’s legal team accused him of breaching a nondisclosure agreement when the billionaire revealed that the platform’s sample size for automated user verification was just 100 users.

“Twitter legal has been summoned to complain that I violated their non-disclosure agreement by revealing that the bot scan sample size is 100! This really happened,” books musk.

The standoff over bot accounts continues as Musk exchanges a series of tweets with Agrawal on the issue. after agrawal Explain carefully How Twitter is trying to combat and measure spam accounts, Mask respond With emoji on tube.

Musk is followed by a somewhat more profound question. “So how do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money?” Musk asked. “This is fundamental to Twitter’s financial health,” he added.

Musk declares that his Twitter Acquisition “Can’t move forward” until he sees more information about the spread of spam accounts, claiming the social media platform falsified numbers in the filings. Without citing a source, he claims in a tweet that Twitter is “fake accounts/spam 20%” and notes that Twitter’s previous filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission were misleading.

In a statement, Twitter said it remained “committed to completing the transaction at the agreed price and terms as quickly as practicable.”