Elon Musk Twitter takeover is now official. His journey of writing a $44 billion cheque is almost unreal. The billionaire went through several stages of committing and withdrawing before making a move only a few days ago. For most people, the chain of events only came up now, and if you are looking for the complete timeline of Elon Musk Twitter takeover, that is what we have shared here.
Table of contents:
01/2022: Initial Purchasing of Twitter Shares
Elon Musk officially started his acquisition process at the end of January 2022, when he bought shares daily. For the next two months, he kept growing his share of the company until he had reached a 5% stake by mid-March.
03/2022: Elon Musk Twitter Takeover: Concerns Over Free Speech
On March 26th, Elon Musk tweeted about his intention to create an alternative to Twitter and that he was “seriously considering” this idea. He had raised concerns about how committed Twitter was towards “free speech” and how their actions could be undermining democracy itself. His talking follows this with the board members of Twitter, especially his friends Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter. The very next day, Elon Musk also shared his interest in joining Twitter’s board and how he was buying Twitter stock continuously. Some regulatory papers also showed his interest in buying Twitter or starting an alternative platform.
04/05/2022: Invitation to Join the Twitter Board
In the coming days, Elon’s shareholding grew significantly until April 4th, when he acquired 9% of the company’s shares valued at $3 billion. The board members at Twitter invite Elon Musk to join the board on April 5th but put forth a condition that Elon can only buy up to 14.9% of the company’s shares.
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022
The CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, also tweeted about Elon’s potential presence by saying that “it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”
Agrawal and Musk communicate and grow close, but after Elon Musk openly Tweets, “Is Twitter dying?”, that relationship falls apart. Agrawal calls his criticism unhelpful, and Elon declares that he “will make an offer to make Twitter private.” An announcement is soon made by Agrawal saying that Musk will not be joining the board.
04/08/2022: Elon Musk Twitter Takeover And $44 Billion Purchase Offer
According to Twitter’s security filings, only three days after Agrawal’s announcement, Elon makes a direct offer to buy the company for $44 billion. The board immediately takes the “poison pill” strategy as a defensive measure against Elon’s takeover. Meanwhile, Elon Musk secured $46.5 billion for the purchase, and the board of Twitter is pressured into discussing the offer.
Securing the funding for Elon Musk Twitter Takeover, SpaceX’s founder sold Tesla shares worth $8.5 billion and secured $7 billion from several key Silicon Valley parties, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. During this time, Elon also announced that he would restore Donald Trump’s account as banning him was “very idiotic” and “morally awful.”
05/2022: The Fake Accounts and Security Concerns
On May 13th Elon put the deal on hold and said he wanted to find out how many spam bots and phony accounts were operating on Twitter. This led to a drop in Twitter stock value, while Tesla stock saw a rebound. On June 6th, Elon threatened to cancel the deal, claiming that Twitter had failed to provide him with information regarding spam bots and fake accounts. A month later, Elon announced that he would withdraw his offer to buy the social media platform. Twitter decided to sue Elon for not honoring the deal and Elon counter-sues them.
A Delaware judge sets a date for a court trial in October. On August 23rd, a former Twitter head of security alleged that Twitter provided false information regarding its security weaknesses to regulators and how the company had been careless in rooting out fake accounts and preventing the spread of misinformation on the platform. Elon also used this revelation as a new justification for his decision to terminate the purchase deal.
10/2022: The Deal Finally Goes Through
Elon Musk suddenly proposes to go through with his decision to buy Twitter on October 5th. The Delaware judge extended the court date to November the following day and gave the two parties till October 28th to agree, that is the official date of the Elon Musk Twitter Takeover. Washington Post says that Elon intends to fire 75% of the company’s staff, which at the time was 7500 employees. He officially makes his acquisition public by sharing a video of himself walking into Twitter offices holding a kitchen sink with the caption saying, “let that sink in.”
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Musk later assured the sponsors he had gathered for this deal in a letter that he did not intend to let the social media platform turn into a “free-for-all hellscape.” The deal was finally announced as closed by Elon Musk with the tweet, “the bird is freed.”
Elon Musk has fired the entire board and is the company’s sole director. He is now looking to revamp the account verification process to generate revenue for the company.
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