By
Temitope Olatunji
April 23rd, 2024
According to the filing that Musk submitted to the SEC on his Twitter offering, the entrepreneur has an alternative plan if he eventually does not buy Twitter.
Shortly after buying a 9.2% stake in Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR), Elon Musk offered to buy the social media company outrightly and now has revealed the reasons for his actions. Musk discussed the propelling force behind his plan to buy off Twitter. As a matter of fact, the businessman is not entirely sure if his intention to purchase Twitter will succeed. During a Ted conference on April 14th, Musk noted that Twitter should support the users’ free speech rights. He also referred to the platform as a de facto town square. Speaking further in a conversation with the head of TED Christ Anderson, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said:
“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. The civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as the public platform.”
Contrary to many public comments that Musk has hidden intentions with his Twitter offer, the Tesla executive said he has no plan to “monopolize” the social network company. However, he explicitly said he is financially capable of buying Twitter, adding that “this is not a way to sort of make money.”
In Musk’s opinion, Twitter’s algorithm should be open source. This way, there would be no room for “behind the scenes manipulation.” He also spoke about crypto scams on Twitter. He made a joke about having Dogecoin for every crypto scam he comes across on the social media app. Therefore, he plans to eliminate the spam and scam bots on the bird app.
Part of his vision is also to include an edit button on Twitter. Which, however, will be active for a limited time after the tweet has been posted.
Elon Musk Has a “Plan B” if Twitter Plan Fails
According to the filing that Musk submitted to the SEC on his Twitter offering, the entrepreneur has an alternative plan if he eventually does not buy Twitter. Musk said he might “reconsider” his shareholder position if his acquisition offer is unsuccessful.
Elon Musk, once again, caused a stir in the market after offering to buy 100% of Twitter. In the SEC filing, Musk offered to pay $54.20 per Twitter share, equaling about $43 billion. In response, Twitter said the Board would review the proposal and make the best decision for the company and its stockholders.
Notably, the CEO recently said he would no longer be a part of the Board, as earlier announced. At the time, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said Musk would bring tremendous value to the Board. With Musk’s decision to no longer be a board member, Agrawal clarified that it would not take a toll on the company.
Twitter stock has been down over 6% in the last five days but it may begin to rebound with recent news. At after-hours trading, TWTR is up 3.50% to $46.66.