Elon Musk, the South African tycoon who owns the electric car company Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX, currently has a little over 9% of Twitter’s share capital.
If Musk buys enough titles to exceed 15%, all the remaining holders of shares of the platform will be able to buy more papers at a discount, which would greatly increase the price that the businessman would have to pay to take full control of the social network.
Twitter’s announcement shows that the San Francisco-based platform plans to defend itself against a hostile proposal from the world’s richest man to buy it and turn it into a closely held company.
Musk’s proposal faces questions on several fronts, including a possible rejection and the challenge of raising the money offered, but it could have wide repercussions on the social network if it is consummated.
On Thursday, he declared that he has “sufficient funds” for the transaction and said he had a “plan B” if Twitter’s board rejected the offer. He also stressed that he was not looking to “make money” from the acquisition during a live interview at the Ted2022 conference.