How will Twitter’s board deal with Elon Musk?

The board of directors of Twitter Inc. is expected to reject Elon Musk’s $43 billion acquisition offer in the next few days because it isn’t enough money. How would the social media company then move forward?

The market thought Musk’s offer was too low and didn’t give enough information about how he would fund it. Twitter shares fell on Thursday after Musk made the offer. 

If there are no changes to the proposal from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Twitter’s board is likely to reject the offer unless Musk changes it.

It could choose to turn down Musk’s offer, but there are a few options Twitter’s board could choose from.

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Twitter’s board may decide not to sell the company to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Instead, they may give new CEO Parag Agrawal more time to meet the company’s goals. 

The board put a one-year poison pill last week that stops Musk from owning more than 15% of the company without the board’s permission, giving itself some time. 

A short-term threat to its board isn’t a problem, either. Investors who want to nominate their board members at the company’s annual meeting in May didn’t do so before the deadline.

At the end of November, Agrawal took over as CEO of Twitter. Before that, he had been the company’s chief technology officer.

In February, Agrawal said he would keep up with the significant revenue and user growth goals that the company set last year, even though some investors were skeptical. By 2023, the company wants to have 315 million average “monetizable” daily active users (registered users who see ads on the platform) and make at least $7.5 billion a year. In 2021, Twitter drove $5.1 billion and had 217 million monetizable daily active users in the fourth quarter of that year.

After making a bid, Musk has given different signals about what he would do if it didn’t work. Last week, he said that if his offer for Twitter were turned down, he would think again about becoming a shareholder. 

Afterward, Musk might sell his stake in Twitter and leave. It’s not all bad news for Musk, though. He tweeted last week that Twitter shareholders should have a say in his proposed deal, no matter what the company’s board thinks. He said he would be willing to move forward with a hostile takeover bid.

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Twitter can offer to show Musk its books in the hope that this will lead to a better deal. This is how it works: It would show that Musk’s $54.20 all-cash bid was not his “best and last offer.” 

It’s not clear how much of his own money Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk would be willing to give to a deal to buy Twitter. Forbes estimates his net worth at $265 billion.

Musk may work with private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, or other big investors to cut down on his equity check in any deal. That’s what he said last Thursday. He said that he wanted as many people who already own Twitter stock as legally possible to buy more of it in a deal.

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Twitter’s board can look into other ways to make money, like contacting companies, private equity firms, and other businesses to see if they’d be interested in a deal. Option A: This option could help you find a better deal or make Tesla CEO Elon Musk raise his offer. 

People who own Twitter might think that they can sell the company, making them more likely to push the company into a deal because its shares are only worth about half what they were a year ago.

Reuters said that one possible bidder, Thoma Bravo LP, contacted Twitter last week to say that it was interested in an offer that would compete with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Other private equity firms may join the fight, and some technology and media companies may also be willing to deal with the scrutiny that comes with a deal like this.

There is a chance that Twitter could make a different deal, and it would not be an acquisition. In 2020, the company agreed to sell $1 billion worth of convertible bonds to Silver Lake’s private equity firm. This move helped the company pay for a $2 billion share buyback, which it did. Twitter could try to make a deal like this with someone else, raising more money and avoiding a complete sale.