Elon Musk says he has the financial backing for his proposed Twitter takeover

Elon Musk now has access to the funds he’d need to buy Twitter. According to an SEC filing, Musk has received “commitment letters” that would supply about $46.5 billion to buy all of Twitter’s outstanding common stock and take control. The Tesla CEO is “exploring” this tender offer following a lack of response from Twitter, the filing reads.

We’ve asked Twitter for comment. While the company hasn’t directly addressed Musk’s offer, initially pegged at $43 billion, it recently approved a temporary “poison pill” measure intended to discourage hostile takeovers. The plan would let some shareholders buy more stock if anyone buys more than 15 percent of outstanding stock without the board of directors’ approval, diluting the value of Musk’s stake. He’s already the largest individual shareholder with 9.2 percent ownership.

Musk made the offer claiming that it was meant to protect free speech, and has suggested he could unlock Twitter’s potential with features like an edit button (which Twitter was already working on) and an open source algorithm. However, it also comes as the executive fights the SEC over alleged finance rule violations that frequently relate to his tweets. The entrepreneur has multiple strong incentives to purchase Twitter, and the financial backing illustrates just how serious he is.

Update 4/21 11:28AM ET: A Twitter spokesperson tells Engadget the company has received Musk’s updated proposal, but that it’s still conducting a “careful, comprehensive and deliberate review” of the offer. You can read the full statement below.

“We are in receipt of the updated, non-binding proposal from Elon Musk, which provides additional information regarding the original proposal and new information on potential financing. As previously announced and communicated to Mr. Musk directly, the Board is committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders.”

コラム：本当の円安危機、1000兆円の家計が外貨買いに走る時に到来か＝佐々木融氏

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桐谷さん自身が20年以上持っている優待株ベスト10

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Netflix plans to offer cheaper ad-supported subscription tiers

Netflix might offer cheaper ad-supported plans in the coming years. In the company’s most recent earnings call, co-CEO Reed Hastings has revealed that the streaming giant is currently working on the offering and that it will be finalizing details for those plans “over the next year or two.” Hastings said he finds ads complex and he’s a huge fan of the simplicity of subscriptions, but giving consumers who don’t mind watching ads the option to pay less “makes a lot of sense.”

And it could make a lot of sense for the company, too. The service lost around 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, a development it blamed on stiffer competition, inability to expand in some territories due to technological limitations and account sharing. Apparently, 222 million households are paying for Netflix, but over 100 million more are sharing those accounts. 

Back in March, Netflix started testing a feature in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru that allowed subscribers to add two “sub-members,” who’ll get their own log-ins and profiles, for $3. It may just be a fraction of what a full membership costs, but at least Netflix is getting something from people who’d normally just borrow their friends’ accounts.

Hastings clarified during the call that the ad-supported memberships will be added as tiers and members who don’t mind paying full subscription fees don’t have to be subjected to advertisements. “It is pretty clear that it is working for Hulu, Disney is doing it, HBO did it. We don’t have any doubt that it works,” he said. The executive also added that Netflix will merely be a publisher and that it will not track user data to match ads like some of its competitors do.

東証再編、スルーされがちな「もう1つの課題」とは　ベンチャーの“転換点”となるか

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Twitter 啟動「毒藥丸」來避免被 Musk 惡意收購

Elon Musk 在前天宣佈出價 430 億美元，想把 Twitter 收入囊中，但究竟此舉對現有的股東是否有利，Twitter 還需要時間討論與表決。為了避免在這當中 Musk 以收購零散股份的方式，繞過董事會達成實質的收購（即惡意收購），Twitter 董事會已經先一步啟動了所謂的「毒藥丸」策略來自保。…

Twitter initiates ‘poison pill’ to block Elon Musk’s takeover bid

The Twitter board isn’t willing to let Elon Musk buy the company without a fight. The board members unanimously approved a limited duration shareholder rights plan, which will be in place for one year starting today.

The rights will come into play if a single entity acquires at least 15 percent of Twitter’s outstanding common stock without the board’s approval. Should that become the case, certain shareholders will have the right to buy more stock. Flooding the market with new shares to dilute other investors’ holdings is called a poison pill strategy, and it’s designed to ward off a hostile takeover attempt.

Musk briefly became Twitter’s largest shareholder when it emerged he had quietly snapped up a 9.2 percent stake in the company. He was offered a seat on the board and if he had accepted, he would not have been allowed to build up an ownership stake of more than 15 percent. Musk turned down the board seat earlier this month, though. This week, Musk made an offer to buy the entire company for around $43 billion.

The company said in a press release that adopting the rights plan will “reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium or without providing the Board sufficient time to make informed judgments and take actions that are in the best interests of shareholders.” In other words, the move will make it harder for Musk to take his buyout offer directly to shareholders and acquire their stakes in piecemeal fashion.

Twitter says the plan is similar to one carried out by other publicly traded companies that have been subject to a non-binding acquisition proposal. Notably, the rights plan doesn’t prevent Twitter from accepting a buyout offer if it believes that’s in the best interest of its shareholders.

Musk claimed in his buyout offer Twitter has “extraordinary potential” and that he would “unlock it.” During a TED Talk just hours after making the proposal, Musk argued that Twitter’s algorithm should be open source, “so anyone can see […] there’s no sort of behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually.” He also suggested he’d err on the side of having less moderation and expressed reservation about issuing permanent bans to users who break the rules.

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