Social Media Giant Twitter Counters Elon Musk’s Takeover Bid With a Poison Pill
Posted on 04/15/2022
The board of Twitter Inc. adopted a so-called poison pill that would help prevent it from undergoing a hostile acquisition. This is after Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for US$ 43 billion. Earlier, Elon Musk acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter.
The board of Twitter unanimously adopted the limited duration shareholder rights plan. Under the plan, if any person or group acquires 15% or more of Twitter’s stock without the board’s approval, other shareholders are allowed to purchase additional shares at a discount. The plan is set to expire in one year.
“The Rights Plan will reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium or without providing the Board sufficient time to make informed judgments and take actions that are in the best interests of shareholders,” Twitter said in a press release.
Likely, other shareholders and Musk can challenge the merits of the poison pill in courts.
Current Twitter Board of Directors
Bret Taylor
Independent Board Chair; Co-CEO, Salesforce. Bret Taylor was the co-creator of Google Maps and former Chief Technology Officer of Facebook.
Parag Agrawal
CEO, Twitter
Mimi Alemayehou
Senior Vice President for Public – Private Partnership at Mastercard
Jack Dorsey
Co-Founder, Twitter; CEO and Co-Founder, Square
Egon Durban
Co-CEO, Silver Lake
Martha Lane Fox
Founder and Chairperson, Lucky Voice Group; Former Co-Founder and Managing Director of lastminute.com; Crossbench Peer, House of Lords
Omid Kordestani
Former Executive Chairman, Twitter and Former Chief Business Officer at Google
Dr. Fei-Fei Li
Professor at Stanford University
Patrick Pichette
General Partner, Inovia Capital; Former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Google
David Rosenblatt
CEO, 1stdibs.com, Inc.
Robert Zoellick
Former Chairman of the Board of Directors of AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. and Former United States Deputy Secretary of State
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