Musk's reasons for delving into Twitter are opaque. Of course Musk will proclaim a higher over arching principle such as protecting "
free speech". But it has also created a fire-storm where other participants and the Twitter corporate board itself have entered the fray.
Elon Musk just proposed to take Twitter private at $54.20 a share. However, Vanguard reported buying TWTR stock before the drama unfolded.
investorplace.com
Before going any further, need to open the time-capsule and delve back into Bill Ackman vs. Carl Icahn over Herbalife. "
The Herbalife saga was also famous for the public feud between Carl Icahn, the founder of Icahn Enterprises, and Ackman. ... The feud’s height was an on-air public verbal brawl in which the two investing titans exchanged insults." Obviously Herbalife and Twitter are two totally different companies.
For 5 years, Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital was portrayed in the media as a crusader on a holy war to take down Herbalife.
streetfins.com
My focus here is the clash of (financial) heavy weights dooking it out for control of a company. Musk has started the brawl. But why?
Enter whataboutism. Now that Musk has effectively driven-up the stock price of Twitter and those opposed to Musk's proposed takeover of the company have started to act protect Twitter, my realpolitik response would be to now dump Twitter and laugh all the way to the bank while screaming to those on the left "
Suckers, I took you for $$$$". But then I'm not Musk and Musk may have some ego driven reasons for pursuing Twitter even if it does not make much self-serving business sense. Proposing to buy twitter stock at $54.20 when it's current price is hovering around $48.925 makes little financial sense. Musk, may well believe that his offer, even if its expensive is well worth it to protect "
free speech".
In the meantime we watch this circus play-out.
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Addendum: Below is the money Musk is willing to buy Twitter for ($43B). The story below that story is the apparent value of the New York Times based on the outstanding shares as of April 22, 2022 which is $6.97B. Seems that Musk would get a better buy-out by acquiring the Times. However, there is the caveat that simply buying shares to gain control of a company may not be as simple as it looks.
Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, saying the social media company needs to be transformed privately.
www.cnbc.com
New York Times market cap history and chart from 2010 to 2024. Market capitalization (or market value) is the most commonly used method of measuring the size of a publicly traded company and is calculated by multiplying the current stock price by the number of shares outstanding. New York...
www.macrotrends.net
As of April 2022
Twitter has a market cap of
$37.36 Billion.
On October 28, 2022 Twitter had a market cap of $41.09 Billion USD.
companiesmarketcap.com