The chaotic week Musk tried to buy Twitter – and the questions that lie ahead

theguardian.com:

It’s been a chaotic few days for Elon Musk.

After announcing he had quietly become Twitter’s largest shareholder, this week Musk launched a hostile takeover bid, offering to buy the social network for $43bn. Twitter’s board responded on Friday by announcing it would implement a plan that could stall or prevent Musk’s attempt.

But experts say the next developments are difficult to predict, said Alma Angotti, an SEC compliance expert at Guidehouse Consulting in Washington. Among many possible paths forward, Musk could retract the offer, dump his existing stock in Twitter, or continue with his quest to take over the company.

“Before they go through a lot of time, trouble, and expenses to respond to Musk, Twitter is likely trying to decide how serious he is,” she said. “If they simply say no to his offer, what is he going to do?”

So what next? Here are some of the biggest remaining questions about Musk’s surprise acquisition attempt.

On 4 April, Musk revealed in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) he had bought up almost $3bn in Twitter shares, making him the platform’s largest shareholder with at 9.2% stake. (Shortly after, Vanguard group surpassed him, now owning 10.3% of the company.)

Musk then offered to purchase Twitter outright at a price of $54.20 a share – 38% higher than Twitter’s 1 April close, the last trading day before his stake in the company was made public – stating this was his “final offer”. While Twitter seems poised to reject the deal, Musk could still buy up additional shares of the company on the open market, or win over shareholder support in the case of a vote.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder and former CEO, noted in a tweet on Friday that such surprise purchases have always been a risk