Elon Musk tweets ‘Love me Tender’ after Twitter moves to prevent takeover

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk over the weekend tweeted “Love me Tender” after Twitter took major steps to thwart his offer to take the company private, a hint that he now may be considering a tender offer to Twitter shareholders.

Musk’s tweet suggests that he would bypass Twitter’s board of directors, which he rejected to join because of the condition he couldn’t buy more than 14.9 percent of the firm. 

Tender offers are made to shareholders to purchase some or all of their stock, usually publicly and set at a higher price per share than the company’s current stock price, “providing shareholders a greater incentive to sell their shares,” according to financial information website Investopedia.  

Despite Musk’s massive offer that could potentially value the company at $43 billion, the Twitter board does not seem interested in his plans to make the social media platform a haven for “free speech.” On Friday, Twitter adopted a “poison pill” defense, which allows current shareholders to buy more shares at a discount to make a hostile takeover — like Musk’s offer — harder to achieve without him increasing the bid. 

Musk tweeted Saturday that the interests of the Twitter board are not aligned with shareholders. 

“Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares!” Musk tweeted, referring to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey departing next month. 

Musk said Thursday at a TED conference he had a “Plan B” if the Twitter board rejected his offer, but he did not explain it in further detail.