Recently Elon Musk offered $44 billion to purchase Twitter, and this offer has led to many questions. At first, Twitter implemented a poison pill tactic so that Musk would be deterred from buying, but Elon Musk offered to buy the shares for 10 points higher than the market price at 54$ per share and the head of Twitter has accepted this now, just approval from shareholders is needed (Feiner). A poison pill tactic is basically when a company wants to avoid a hostile takeover by selling shares to existing shareholders at a discounted price to deter a large party, or in this case, Elon Musk. Musk has announced that he will take the company private, giving him much more freedom and control, and giving users free speech. Infamously, Trump was banned from Twitter because of his tweets after the capitol riot that “encouraged violence”(Castleman). Musk has also fired many from Twitter which has caused controversy all over the media. 

Musk has fired a head executive who is also their main lawyer named Vijaya Gadde who had earned $17 million a year. She was fired because Elon Musk felt she had “liberal bias”(Ians), due to her being one of the leading decisions in banning Trump and suspending accounts that had exclusive information on Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 election. All of these actions are strictly against what Musk wants Twitter to be. He wants the press and the people to have free speech on Twitter, which will continue to change as time goes on and the deal finalizes. Musk is also expected to be head CEO of Twitter temporarily after the deal is closed. This has caused even more questions because there could be more head members fired to come, although Gadde was given a severance package of 12.5 million dollars and is being defended by other head executives (Ians).

The bid has been delayed even more since shareholders still have to agree on Musk buying shares at a higher price. Former CEO Jack Dorsey believes that Twitter should switch to a private company, and he has also declined Musk's offer to stay on the board of Twitter. The board of Twitter already has decided to accept Musk’s hostile takeover of $44 billion (Chow), but the deal has been put on hold for another reason as well being Musk studying the number of bots and spam accounts on Twitter. On April 4, Musk reached out to Dorsey about his perspective on Twitter. According to the filing, Dorsey told Musk he believes Twitter would be better equipped to focus on execution as a private company. Musk asked if Dorsey would stay on the board even though he had already been set to leave, and Dorsey declined. Soon after that conversation, the board completed Musk’s background check, and his appointment on the board was set to go into effect on April 9. 

Problems are emerging with the deal as the transaction is still on hold, and shareholders are suing Twitter for deflating the price (Ortutay). Musk himself is having many problems as well, losing ⅓ of his value from selling Tesla stock and having to deal with the shareholders. It is also alleged that Musk was involved in a scandal in which he exposed himself to a flight attendant and it is said that SpaceX covered it up by paying the attendant over $250,000 (McHugh). Musk has also announced that he will vote Republican next year when he stated,”’In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold..."’(Kolodny). However, many people do not support this decision and have caused Musk to receive lots of backlash for announcing it on Twitter. The deal will continue even though all these incidents are being published all over the media.

Works Cited

Castleman, Terry. "Who did Twitter ban during the Trump era, and why?" LA Times [Los Angeles], 25 Apr. 2022, www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-04-25/elon-musk-takes-over-twitter-what-happens-to-banned-trump-allies.

Chow, Andrew R. "Why Elon Musk's Plans to 'Fix' Twitter Will Be Harder to Implement Than He Thinks." Time [New York City], 25 Apr. 2022, time.com/6170494/elon-musk-fix-twitter-plans/.

Feiner, Lauren. "New filing reveals the full story behind Musk's bid to buy Twitter." CNBC [Englewood Cliffs], www.cnbc.com/2022/05/17/musks-bid-to-buy-twitter-private-story-detailed-in-new-filing.html.

Ians. "Elon Musk could fire Twitter's Vijaya Gadde who makes $17 million a year." The Economic Times [Mumbia], 2 May 2022, economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/elon-musk-could-fire-twitters-vijaya-gadde-who-makes-17-million-a-year/articleshow/91248666.cms.

Kolodny, Lora. "Elon Musk says he'll vote Republican, bashes Democrats." CNBC [Englewood Cliffs], www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/elon-musk-says-hell-vote-republican-bashes-democrats.html.

McHugh, Rich. "A SpaceX flight attendant said Elon Musk exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, documents show. The company paid $250,000 for her silence." Business Insider [New York City], 19 May 2022, www.businessinsider.com/spacex-paid-250000-to-a-flight-attendant-who-accused-elon-musk-of-sexual-misconduct-2022-5.

Ortutay, Barbara. "Twitter shareholders sue Musk, say he 'deflated' stock price." AP News [New York City], 26 May 2022, apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-lawsuits-f25aafb7cca4461de4643e363123beb1.