JAKARTA - Elon Musk has again become an international topic, because of his desire to own Twitter as a private company, through the intermediary of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Twitter was acquired by Musk for 43 billion US dollars, or around Rp. 618 trillion. Currently the value of Twitter is worth less than Musk's offer, which is about 37 billion US dollars or Rp517 trillion. But Twitter is a company that continues to grow its value will be even higher in the future.
Quoted from Antara, on April 4, 2022 Musk announced he had 9.2 shares in Twitter. Making him the largest shareholder on the platform. The value of its shares is US$2.9 billion or Rp. 41.5 trillion. In an instant Twitter share price jumped 22 percent in early trading. In contrast, the share price of Tesla, Musk's company, fell 1.5 percent on the same day.
The reason Musk owns Twitter completely isn't purely business or profit. According to Musk, he wants Twitter to remain a democratic platform. Recently, Musk has been critical of Twitter's policies.
He had the idea of wanting to have his own social media platform. And provide wider access to verified accounts or blue ticks for public figures, journalists and people involved in news.
Elon Musk is an active Twitter user with 81.6 million followers. Like Twitter users in general, Musk often shares memes and ridicule through his personal Twitter account, @elonmusk, to his followers.
Musk's proposal to the SEC also mentions "freedom of speech" as a focus.
His interest in buying all Twitter shares was also expressed through his personal Twitter account with the handle @elonmusk.
Musk immediately pinned a link pointing to the SEC. "I'm making an offer..." Musk tweeted along with a link to the SEC file. I made an offer https://t.co/VvreuPMeLu — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
News of Musk's acquisition of Twitter also triggered a rise in the company's shares by more than 13 percent.
Poison Pill ManeuverQuoted from Between April 18, 2022, it is reported that shareholders are not interested in Musk's offer. Twitter's Board of Directors has issued a new "shareholder rights plan" to block Elon Musk's proposed purchase offer last week.
The board of directors used the poison pill maneuver. It was an attempt to deter hostile takeovers, by giving certain shareholders the right to buy more shares if outsiders tried to take control.
The plan is a major setback for the Tesla owner's efforts to take full financial control of Twitter. Musk also grumbled on his twitter.
"The board's salary will be $0 if my bid is successful, so that's roughly $3 million/year stashed in there," Musk tweeted, in response to a user post criticizing the board.
The Twitter investor who has made a stand is the Prince of Saudi Arabia, Alwadeed bin Talal Al Saud. In a tweet uploaded via his official Twitter account, @Alwadeed_Talal, he openly rejected Musk's offer.
"I don't believe @elonmusk's offer (USD 54.20) is close to the actual stock value, given its growth prospects," Talal wrote. "As one of Twitter's largest and longest-serving shareholders, @Kingdom_KHC and I turned down this offer," he continued.
Musk's journey to buy Twitter is quite long. When it already owned 9.2 percent of Twitter, the company offered Musk a seat on the board of shareholders.
The offer is part of a strategy to keep Musk from holding more than 15 percent of the stake. Musk initially considered the offer, but ultimately said no.
Musk renewed his filing with the SEC, and made it clear that he would not be a passive player in the company's affairs. He said he would make changes to Twitter.
Musk Funding SchemeSo how did Musk manage to finance the purchase of Twitter and make it private?
Elon Musk confirmed that he had secured funding worth 46.5 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 667.50 trillion to acquire the Twitter platform. A third of the funding came from his own assets or borrowed from Tesla stock.
Quoted from Bloomberg, Thursday, April 21, according to the acquisition submission document to the US Stock Exchange authority, the source of funding for Twitter's acquisition of US$25.5 billion was a loan from Morgan Stanley Financial Services and other financial institutions.
This includes a margin loan with a guaranteed stake in Tesla. And as much as 21 billion US dollars of acquisition funds came from equity financing provided by Musk himself.
Musk himself has spent 2.6 billion US dollars to buy a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter. His holdings in Tesla stock are about $184 billion. Musk also owns Space Exploration Technologies Corp., at nearly 48 percent.
Many big questions from analysts, will Musk consider selling some of his stake in his favorite company for this? Given its $12.5 billion margin lending facility, it requires collateral for around 58.7 million Tesla shares. The margin lending facility allows Musk to sell Tesla shares that have not been pledged.
Musk still has $25 billion in unsecured shares. That's enough to cover $21 billion in equity financing, after taxes and cash on hand.
Alternatively, Musk is looking for partners to contribute to his equity financing. To be sure, the questions surrounding how Musk will fund his acquisition wish have been answered.
Could Elon Musk give up his bid to acquire Twitter? Musk said if he ultimately failed, at least he managed to get Twitter to make the changes he wanted. There are always exciting possibilities in Musk's bid. Twitter and Musk are already very close.
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