Twitter’s board is reportedly considering using a poison pill in an attempt to stop Elon Musk’s ability to purchase the whole company.
A poison pill is a shareholder rights plan that would limit a single shareholder from purchasing too many shares and forcing the company into a sale, according to The New York Times.
Elon Musk said he had the means to buy Twitter, but investors were skeptical. The board was considering a “poison pill,” a defensive move.https://t.co/pMz9prWHH4
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 14, 2022
The poison pill would allow Twitter’s board to either flood the market with shares or allow current shareholders to buy more shares at a discount, reported The New York Times. Musk can counter using a tender offer to put his offer to the shareholders instead of Twitter’s board.
“If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty,” Musk tweeted Thursday. “The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale.”
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal from Saudi Arabia balked at Musk’s offer in a tweet Thursday. He considers himself to be “one of the largest & long-term shareholders of Twitter.”
“I don’t believe that the offer by [Musk] ($54.20) comes close to the intrinsic value of [Twitter] given its growth prospects,” the tweet reads. (RELATED: Elon Musk Jabs Back With Two Questions After Saudi Prince Rejects Twitter Offer)
Musk shot back at bin Talal Thursday.
“What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?” Musk replied to bin Talal’s tweet.
Musk offered $43.4 billion Thursday to take Twitter private and buy out all shareholders at $54.20 per share. Twitter’s shares closed the day Thursday at $45.08 per share.