Musk to Team Up With Investors to Counter ‘Poison Pill’ – Here’s A Look at His Allies in Ownership

Entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk is reportedly teaming up with investors to countermove Twitter’s “poison pill,” a method of diluting Musk’s shares in order to weaken his current standing. Musk currently is the largest shareholder with over 9% of the company valued at roughly $3 billion.

Twitter’s board of directors unanimously adopted a limited duration shareholders rights plan, known as a “poison pill” in finance jargon. This allows Twitter’s shareholders to buy up cheap shares of the company, diluting the commanding stake that Musk holds.

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According to the New York Post, Musk is attempting to bring in other investors to help bolster his bid to take the company. “Sources close to the matter” said that a partnership could be announced “within days,” the NY Post reports.

Reports are also circulating that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is stepping in to help Musk takeover the social media platform, which is accused of widespread censorship that fails to provide Americans with the basic right to free speech.

Musk has allies in ownership, which includes the state of Florida. The state is a shareholder in the company through the state’s pension fund. Governor DeSantis has signaled that lawyers are currently looking into what actions he can take to thwart the Twitter board’s “poison pill” effort.

DeSantis announced that a team of lawyers is currently reviewing how the state can hold the Twitter board “accountable for breaching their fiduciary duty.”

Musk used this exact language on Twitter’s platform, warning that the board may soon face legal repercussions for “breaching their fiduciary duty” to Twitter shareholders. Take a look:

If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty.

The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022

More on this story via Western Journal:

According to the Post’s sources, the firm had previously planned to invest with Musk in 2018 when he attempted to take Tesla private.

The co-CEO of Silver Lake, Egon Durban, is a Twitter board member who personally “led Musk’s deal team” in 2018, the sources said.

Silver Lake declined the Post’s request for comment, as did a representative for Musk himself, the Post reported.

Such a partnership would circumvent Twitter’s attempts to block Musk’s acquisition of the company, according to The Post.

“For its part, Twitter on Friday adopted a so-called poison pill — a corporate move that prevents Musk from acquiring more than 15% of the company,” the Post reported.

“But that pill may not stop other entities or people from acquiring their own shares of up to 15% of the company. Those owners could partner with Musk to force a sale, make changes in the executive ranks or push for other overhauls of the company.”

In an interview Thursday as part of the TED2022 conference, Musk said his determination to buy Twitter involved more than making money, as The Hill reported.

“My strong, intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization,” Musk said. “I don’t care about the economics at all.”

“My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted & broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”

“I don’t care about the economics at all.”