Twitter reportedly poised to accept Musk acquisition bid

‘People familiar with the matter’ say Twitter is poised to accept Elon Musk’s offer to buy the social media platform for $43 billion.

Based on tips from anonymous sources, an article in Reuters says the Twitter board may announce a deal later on today after it has met to recommend it to shareholders. Twitter has apparently not been able to secure a ‘go-shop’ provision which would allow it to solicit other bids once the deal is signed, but it would be allowed to accept an offer from another party by paying Musk a break-up fee.

There’s nothing official out yet, and even if true the deal could still go south. But it could mean a deal is accepted in some form by the end of the day – which is a very different picture to what was being painted just a few days ago, when there was talk of ‘poison pill’ tactics being employed by the board to try and derail the purchase.

The whole saga has taken so many twists and turns its easy to forget what a short time frame it’s all happened in. Nine days ago Musk put out an offer to buy the platform and take it private for around $43 billion, or  $54.20 per share. This followed his purchased of 73.5 million shares a few days before, and subsequent decision not to take a boar seat that would have come with it.

Musk has famously had issues with the way Twitter is run, and comes from a position that free speech is imperative, that Twitter is where a lot of the public discourse now occurs, and it is not being well served by the current management. Some of this he’s expressed overtly, and there have also been numerous enigmatic tweets on the subject.

If negotiations are in the late stages as these anonymous sources seem to suggest, it looks like we’ll find out one way or the other as to who will be running the show very soon. There is much speculation as to what Musk might implement if given the opportunity, but one thing you can be sure of is that it won’t be business as usual if the deal does go through. As Musk put it: “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”

Get the latest news straight to your inbox. Register for the Telecoms.com newsletter here.