Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter, one of the largest and most influential social media platforms in the world, has been rocking the finance space recently. The billionaire who wants to take over the social media platform has made a very enticing offer for Twitter to be sold to him. However, he has also made threats to back up his bid to get his point across. And although this move has garnered support from a lot of prominent figures, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin is less than impressed with such hostile takeovers.
This Could Be Very Bad
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently took to Twitter to share his thoughts on Musk’s attempt to purchase Twitter. For many, Musk taking over the social media platform would be a good thing. However, Buterin notes that although this could ultimately be a good thing compared to the current leadership of Twitter, it could be a sliding scale that could set a precedent for other wealthy individuals and governments when it comes to hostile takeovers.
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As noted earlier, Musk had followed up his offer to purchase the social media platform with a threat. The billionaire who owns a 9.2% stake in the company is one of the largest shareholders and has threatened to sell off his shares in the platform if it is not sold to him. By doing this, Musk could effectively tank the price of Twitter stocks if he does not get his way. Thus making this a very prominent takeover.
Buterin explains that the enthusiasm for rich people like Musk to take over organizations like Twitter could end up going “very wrong”. He gave the example of an ethically challenged foreign government wanting to do something similar to what Musk is doing, which would be very bad for millions of people worldwide.
The "but that Saudi guy already owns 5%" point is well taken but ultimately weak imo. Control is superlinear in ownership stake. His level of ability to control policy is very low now, and would increase by *far* more than 10x if his ownership increased to 50%.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) April 16, 2022
Will Twitter Sell To Musk?
Musk’s bid to purchase Twitter is still an ongoing one but this has not come without pushback. This showed prominently in the decision that was taken by Twitter’s board in response to Musk’s attempt at a hostile takeover.
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It has led to the adoption of the “poison pill” by the board in a bid to fend off further attempts like this in the future. This Rights Plan will make sure that a single person or entity is unable to take control of Twitter by allowing other shareholders to purchase more shares at a discounted price when a single entity or individual acquires at least 15% beneficial ownership of the company.
Furthermore, Musk has since been overthrown as the highest Twitter shareholder since news of his plan to purchase Twitter broke. According to a recent SEC filing, Vanguard Group is now the largest Twitter shareholder with a 10.3% stake compared to Musk’s 9.2%. Musk himself has also expressed that he is ‘not sure’ if his plan to acquire Twitter will be successful.
Twitter price at $46 | Source: TWITTERUSD on TradingView.com
Featured image from The Indian Express, chart from TradingView.com