Musk owns 9.2% of Twitter’s company stock already.
Elon’s looking for more control, with the “poison pill” as one of his largest obstacles. Musk is reportedly manoeuvring to get together his acquisition bid for Twitter.
In one New York Post report on Tuesday, which uses two undisclosed sources, Musk is possibly willing to put aside as much as $15B of his own cash to help finance a buyout.
This includes asking Morgan Stanley to aid in raising an additional $10 billion from debt, according to the New York Post, with the key goal to make a buyout offer within a fortnight. The New York Times has also reported that Morgan Stanley is aiding Musk in acquiring enough debt instead of equity to finance for his bid to start the process. One ledger with the SEC the week previous confirms the bank is advisory to Musk.
Elon Musk Will Cut Board Member Salary to $0 if Twitter Bid Wins
It’s no surprise the board is resistant. Musk plans to get rid of the salaries of Twitter’s board members if his $43B (£33B) offer for the firm is successful.
The billionaire also taunted the board on Monday when the social media giant took a ‘poison pill’ stance to insulate itself from the second-largest shareholder-made cash-buyout bid in history.
Musk even tweeted that board salaries will be $0 if his bid succeeds, which means around $3M per year saved right from the outset. This was a reply to one user who criticised the board members for being paid between $250,000 and $300,000 annually.
Not relenting in his tirade against the firm, Elon made a poll on Thursday to see out of his 80 million followers if converting Twitter into a private firm at $54.20 should be down to shareholders, not the board, which received a 83% result of ‘Yes’.
After this, the Tesla CEO then tweeted ‘Love Me Tender’, which is an Elvis Presley track, after Twitter adopted a scheme to sell shares at a discount to stop any attempt by shareholders to get a stake of over 15%. Musk already has a 9.1% stake in the firm.
Joe Rogan’s Take
The Joe Rogan Experience is a podcast run by American comedian, as well as UFC presenter and commentator Joe Rogan. It went live on December 24, 2009, streaming on YouTube hosted by Rogan and his comedian friend Brian Redban.
By 2020, the Joe Rogan podcast reached the Forbes list of highest-revenue podcasts with $30 million in money flowing in.
So the JRE podcast can function as a useful touchstone to how internet users might respond to a successful bid.
To begin with, the podcast goliath Joe Rogan gave his support to Musk as the Tesla CEO continues with his buyout move to win over Twitter. Which saw a cultural flurry after Musk revealed he already had more than 9% stake of Twitter, which then was followed by an offer to purchase the entire firm for $43B after declining taking a seat on Twitter's board of directors, which last week then opted to take a "poison pill" stance to thwart his efforts.
The Tesla CEO’s move to turn Twitter into a better free speech platform has received praise from conservatives while members of the traditional old media have warned the outlook of the unpredictable billionaire taking over the tech giant, is against the principles of "content moderation" which many Musk supporters say is actually censorship.
Indeed, an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" saw Rogan claiming that Musk was among the "powerful leaders" that US people look to for guidance.
Rogan said that’s why he is and everyone is so excited that Musk is trying to buy the firm. Comparing Musk to a king Rogan said they’re praising the move, saying, "Yes - the great one!"
And Bill Maher also added his support, saying Elon wants to sort out social media’s over-control of free speech. Rogan says Musk is super-intelligent and an alpha character who seems to have great ethics as well as morals. Rogan says Elon seems like a man who could be that “guy movie character”, someone who was a super billionaire who didn’t care, but was also really smart. Rogan went on to say Elon is very genuine and trying to save humanity. “That’s that guy."
Comedian Joe Rogan recently responded to criticisms over allegedly racist comments in the past. His support adds to the host of "Real Time", Bill Maher, who cheered on Musk's buyout of Twitter, saying he’s “for it!"
Maher added to his position by saying that today we live in an era where Twitter is like the public town square now. By blocking someone's right to speak on Twitter, you're essentially saying they don't have free speech rights. And Maher also said that the world isn’t living in the 1980s any longer. Times are different and the world we live in is one where social media controls many things. Social media, he says, is almost like “living in a space” rather than it being a publication. And it’s also not quite a private firm either. Which is why things are so tricky.
Maher says this is why Elon Musk wants to solve Twitter. Meanwhile, proponents of legacy media collectively attacked Musk's latest move. One of the most outspoken critics are the staff of The Washington Post, whose owner is also a billionaire, Jeff Bezos.
