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Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, is ready to put 43 billion dollars on the table to buy Twitter. He currently owns 9.1% of the shares. The strategy used by the billionaire sounds familiar. After all, his journey at Tesla also began with the purchase of a bundle of shares.
For some time now, Musk has been making it known that he is unhappy with the way Twitter is being run. In recent weeks, he has repeatedly attacked the platform; according to the boss of Tesla, Twitter does not always respect freedom of expression. He therefore wants to reform the company from the inside. “I believe in Twitter’s potential to be the platform dedicated to free expression in the world, and I believe that free expression is a social necessity for a functioning democracy,” he said Thursday after the news broke. the buyout offer.
The Tesla boss has always been a staunch defender of free speech, which has put him on a collision course with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission, the US federal financial markets regulator and supervisor). ) Many times. Musk is forced to have his tweets about Tesla checked by lawyers. The regulator imposed this obligation on him because in 2018 he falsely claimed via Twitter that he was going to take Tesla off the stock exchange.
Already seen
Musk had already purchased a 9.1% stake in the company earlier this month. He was also supposed to get a seat on the board of directors, but that plan was eventually cancelled. The $43 billion takeover bid followed soon after.
Musk’s strategy will no doubt give some a sense of deja vu. It would not be the first time that the billionaire has taken a stake in a company and then become its dominant figure. He did the same with Tesla.
It may surprise some people, but Musk is not one of the automaker’s original founders. The company was founded in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk only joined the company in 2004. He then invested $30 million in Tesla and became chairman of the board.
Musk only became CEO in 2008
In 2007, Eberhard resigned as CEO of Tesla, but remained on the company’s advisory board. He was later replaced by Ze’ev Drori. This entrepreneur then remained at the helm until 2008. In that year, Eberhard and Tarpenning retired from the business completely. Shortly thereafter, in October 2008, Musk took over as CEO of Tesla and fired 25% of the company’s staff.
This transition was not without controversy: Eberhard and Tarpenning claimed to have been sidelined within their own company. In 2009, Eberhard sued Tesla and Musk for, among other things, defamation and slander. He claimed he was fired, and that his management was wrongly blamed for the delays and financial troubles surrounding the Roadster. Eberhard withdrew his lawsuit the same year.
Did Twitter want to avoid this?
Analysts previously noted that Twitter wanted to give Musk a seat on the board to prevent him from trying to take over the entire company. According to the arrangement that the billionaire had concluded with Twitter, he was not allowed to own more than 14.9% of the shares of the platform. Marketwatch reporter Therese Poletti talked about a smart move on Twitter’s part in an opinion piece on that site. “In this way, the company saves Musk from doing the same thing he did at Tesla,” it read.
This could explain why Musk ultimately declined a seat on the board. That way, he could pave the way for a complete takeover.