Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he has a ‘Plan B’ available in case Twitter rejects his bid to acquire 100% of the social media platform.
Expressing doubt over his Twitter buyout offer at a TED event in Vancouver, the world’s richest man did say that he had a backup plan if the deal did not go his way but did not reveal any explicit details. Musk’s first public comment regarding the deal came hours after he sought to buy 100% of Twitter for an all-cash offer of $54.20 per share. The deal was valued at $41 Billion.
A few days earlier, Musk decided not to join the Twitter board of directors after Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal offered him a seat at the table following Musk’s 9.2% stake purchase in the company.
Elon Musk’s Plan B – Options?
Elon Musk’s hostile takeover bid does not leave him with many options since he cannot purchase a stake beyond 14.9% in the company. However, there were a couple of avenues at his disposal. For one, Musk would have to make a sweetened bid over his ‘best and final offer’ to pressurize some of Twitter’s shareholders to take the deal more seriously.
Secondly, Musk doesn’t have to convince all of Twitter’s shareholders for the deal to go through. The majority just needs to back his offer. This could have Musk engaging the shareholders in a proxy war, whereby those in favor of the deal join hands and gather enough shareholder proxy votes to win the corporate decision.
In a statement released on Thursday, Twitter said that it would carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders. Reportedly, the firm has scheduled an emergency meeting with all of its employees to discuss Musk’s staggering bid.