For the last few days, the internet has been abuzz with Elon Musk and his hostile takeover attempt on Twitter. The world’s richest person has put pressure on the board of Twitter to let him have the controlling power and call the shots. Musk has evaluated Twitter as worth $43 billion but believes that the micro-blogging platform has immense potential if steered in the right direction.
The board is yet to make a final decision, but the latest moves made by it indicate that Musk’s proposal has ignited more of a fear than joy among the board members. The company has recently swelled the ‘poison pill’ to avoid any hostile takeover attempt.
Amid all the development, Elon Musk has found quite an unusual support from none other than Jack Dorsey, Co-founder of Twitter Inc., who stepped down from CEO in November last year.
Jack Dorsey has reacted by tagging the board as “consistently the dysfunction of the company.“
Dorsey’s response came in the form of a tweet on Sunday. He also took a dig at the board of Twitter by agreeing with a venture capitalist who posted that a badly run board “can make a billion dollars in value disappear.“
The move has triggered a discussion about Dorsey backing the proposal from Musk for the Twitter takeover. Dorsey is still holding a seat on the board and has a 2.2% stake in the micro-blogging platform.
Dorsey was succeeded by Parag Agrawal, an Indian executive at Twitter who is, apparently, facing the toughest time in his career to deal with the situation created by Musk and Dorsey.
Another tweet from Dorsey also indicates that, like Musk, he is also not aligned with the board of Twitter despite owning being a part of it. While Musk recently rejected a seat on the board of Twitter, Dorsey revealed that he was not allowed to speak publicly about the board.
Musk said that the interest of the current board of Twitter is not aligned with the shareholders. His statement has backing by the fact that the current Twitter board, collectively, didn’t own a sizeable stake in Twitter Inc. after the departure of Dorsey last year. Dorsey owns 2.2% of the platform.
While some shareholders have openly and instantly rejected Musk’s offer, some have decided to keep their cards close to the chest. The Vanguard Group and Morgan Stanley are the largest stakeholders in Twitter, owning 10.29% and 8.08% of Twitter, respectively. With a 9.2% stake, Musk is the largest individual stakeholder in the company.
Dorsey’s tweets and responses indicate that he finds value in Musk’s offer of $43 billion for acquiring Twitter. However, unlike Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns 5.2% of Twitter and rejected Musk’s offer instantly, Dorsey has yet to make his stand clear on Musk’s offer.
It would be interesting to see how things will unfold in the days to come. Knowing Musk’s working style, it’s safe to assume that the Twitter saga has just begun, and a lot more action will take place in the weeks to come. Will the board stand divided on Musk’s offer? Will Musk be able to acquire Twitter? Will Twitter be sold to someone else? Only time will have the answers of it.
