Elon Musk tweeted ‘Love Me Tender’, an Elvis Presley song, a day after Twitter Inc. adopted a “poison pill” to protect itself from the billionaire’s $43 billion cash offer to buy the social media company.
After Musk’s TED talk on Thursday last, according to a Reuters report on Monday, he hinted at the possibility of a hostile bid in which he would bypass Twitter’s board and put the offer directly to its shareholders, tweeting: “It would be utterly indefensible not to put this offer to a shareholder vote”.
In another tweet over the weekend, Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist” who has been critical of Twitter and its policies, replied to a post of his from 2017 where he had asked “How much is it (Twitter)?” with an upside down smiley.
Musk, who is also the CEO of electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc., has amassed a 9.1 percent stake in Twitter and is the social media firm’s second-biggest shareholder.
Twitter’s shares have risen roughly 15 percent since Musk disclosed his stake on April 4.
Thoma Bravo, a technology-focused private equity firm that had more than $103 billion in assets under management as of the end of December, informed Twitter that it was exploring the possibility of putting together a bid, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.