It all started with a casual conversation. "I love Twitter.. You should buy it then.. How much is it?" Who knew a few words exchanged on the platform in 2017 would end on a high note as big as buying the platform itself in 2022! That is Elon Musk for you.
On Monday, the 'champion of free speech', the world's richest person struck a $44 billion deal with Twitter to take control over one of the most influential social networks. The sealing of the deal has ended weeks of speculations as it is now confirmed that Twitter has agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk for $54.20 per share following negotiation of purchase price. The publicly traded firm will now become a private company owned by Musk.
So what exactly led to this billion dollar deal? Here's a timeline of Twitter takeover by Elon Musk:
Nearly 4 months back on January 31: Musk starts building his stake. He started quietly buying Twitter shares, and gradually by the 14th of March, he had accumulated over 5% stake in the company.
Elon Musk has been an avid user of the platform and at the same time, one of its loudest critics. March 24 onwards: Musk started criticizing Twitter in a series of tweets.
He conducted a poll to gauge the opinion of users whether Twitter algorithm should be an open source. 82.7% participators said yes. His next poll was to find out if Twitter rigorously adheres to free speech. Maximum answers were NO.
The tweet that followed generated even lot more curiosity. Elon Musk asked whether there was a need of a new platform? He even responded to an Indian user that he is ‘giving serious thought to this’.
On April 4: Elon Musk buys 9.2 per cent shares of Twitter.
The following day, on the 5th of April: Elon Musk becomes a board member of Twitter. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced in a series of tweets that Elon Musk was appointed to Twitter’s Board and that he would bring great value to the Board.
April 10: Musk denies joining Twitter Board.
The next day, CEO Parag Agrawal shared a note on Twitter mentioning that Musk has decided not to join the company's board. He however said Twitter will remain open to Elon's inputs, regardless of whether the company's shareholder is on the board or not.
April 14 was a big day: Musk offered to buy the whole company for $43 billion. Musk said he is willing to pay $54.20 per share to buy 100% of the company in an all-cash offer that values the social network at $43.4 billion.
April 15: Twitter adopts “poison-pill” provision - Board of Directors invoked the 'poison pill'– the Limited Duration Shareholder Rights Plan – which was aimed at stopping Elon from buying the platform. The takeover was delayed, but Musk's offer was still available.
April 18: Musk tweets Elvis Presley song “Love me tender”. A tender offer is a bid to buy some or all of the stocks in a specific company publicly, at a higher price than the current value. So a few experts linked this song to the offer made by Musk.
April 21: Elon Musk revealed how he intends to gather $43 billion for purchasing Twitter.
On the 24th of April: The Board holds discussions with Musk. Discussions continued for long wherein Musk reportedly presented his financial details.
April 25th: $44 billion deal between Elon Musk and Twitter was SEALED. Twitter announced that it has accepted Musk’s offer to acquire the company at $54.20 per share, valuing the social media platform at $44 billion. This deal is seen as one of the biggest buyout offers of recent times.