Elon Musk says his bid to buy Twitter is not about money but ‘the future of civilization’ during live TED talk – and teases secret ‘Plan B’ after major shareholder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said his $54.20-a-share offer was NOT high enough

  • Musk on Wednesday night sent a letter to Twitter offering to take the company private for $41 billion 
  • He called it his ‘best and final offer’ and insisted ‘I am not playing the back-and-forth game’ 
  • Twitter’s board of directors is meeting Thursday afternoon and says it will ‘carefully review the proposal’ 
  • Offer represents a 38% premium to the closing price of Twitter’s stock on April 1, but is below last year’s highs
  • Musk currently owns more than 9% of Twitter’s stock and recently turned down a board seat
  • Shares of Twitter jumped 5.6 percent at the opening bell Thursday, to $48.40 — below Musk’s offer price 
  • It indicated that the market remains skeptical that Musk’s takeover bid will be successful
  • Musk has amassed over 80 million Twitter followers since joining the site in 2009 

Elon Musk has said that he is pursuing a hostile takeover of Twitter not for financial gain, but for the ‘future of civilization,’ saying that he has a ‘Plan B’ if his initial $41 billion offer fails.

Musk’s plan faces an uphill battle, with a Saudi prince who is a major shareholder saying that he would vote against the offer of $54.20 per share, calling it too low.

And the Twitter board, meeting on Thursday afternoon, is considering combatting the hostile takeover with a so-called ‘poison pill’ provision that would prevent Musk from increasing his stake in Twitter, a source told the Wall Street Journal.

But Musk, speaking at the TED2022 Conference in Vancouver on Thursday afternoon, defended his offer, saying he was motivated to transform Twitter into a bastion of free speech.

‘This is not about the economics,’ Musk said. ‘My strong intuitive sense is having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is important to the future of civilization.’

‘The civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform,’ he said. ‘Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it’s really important that people have both the reality and perception that they are able to speak freely, in the bounds of the law.’

Asked whether there is a ‘Plan B’ if the Twitter board rejects his bid, Musk responded ‘there is’, but declined to offer further details, saying that he would elaborate further at ‘another time.’

Though regulatory filings suggest that his bid is contingent on anticipated financing, Musk insisted that he had the resources on his own to complete the transaction, saying ‘I have sufficient assets…I can do it.’

Twitter’s board of directors was meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss Musk’s historic takeover bid, and the company planned to hold an all-hands meeting later in the day to update employees.

Shares of Twitter swung between positive and negative in volatile afternoon trading, but remained well below Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share, suggesting that markets are skeptical that the deal will go through.