Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Saga – The Entire Sequence of Events
It is everywhere – The Elon Musk takeover. Of course, the takeover had its own share of drama. At one point, it looked like the whole deal collapsed. But today, right now, it is done. Elon Musk is now the sole director of Twitter.
If you are looking to understand how your Twitter experience will be impacted with Musk at the helm, check our recent blog on Five Changes Expected in Twitter After Elon Musk Takeover.
In this blog, we take you through the sequence of events leading to the completion of the takeover,
27th March 2022 – Musk Hints About Creating A Social Media Platform
Answering to a user’s tweet, Elon Musk mentioned that he is seriously considering the possibility of owning a social media platform. It was just a hint though and he never mentioned about Twitter on that day.
4th April 2022 – Elon Musk Buys Twitter Shares
Just a week later to his hint, Elon declared his purchase of close to 10 percent of Twitter shares. The news is received by the market with a growth of 25 percent in the shares.
5th April 2022 – Elon Enters Twitter Board
Just a day later, former Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal announces that Elon Musk will be joining the board of directors. This was an expected announcement as Elon Musk is the largest shareholder of Twitter.
10th April 2022 – Elon Exits Twitter Board
Just five days after becoming a board member, Elon Musk decides to step out of the board. There was no specific reason cited for this move. Parag just announced that it was Elon’s choice. Parag Agarwal also mentioned that the board will still encourage Elon’s input in decisions.
13th April 2022 – Elon Tries to Fully Own Twitter
Just in a span of days, things escalated quickly, and Elon made attempts to completely buy Twitter. He offered to buy all shares in the stock market and expressed his interest to make Twitter a private entity instead of a Publicly owned company.
25th April 2022 – Twitter Shareholders Negotiate with Elon
As soon as Elon expressed his interest to buy the whole of Twitter. The board immediately made moves to strengthen its side. The board passed a few privileges in order to stop any hostile takeover.
But soon after, the board started negotiations with Elon Musk. An offer close to 44 billion dollars was accepted by the Twitter board.
4th May 2022 – Elon Hints at a Fee-Based Twitter Service
This announcement raised a tingling feeling around Twitter lovers. Musk mentioned that there will be a fee charged for all commercial Twitter users. He insisted that Twitter will still be free for personal users.
13th May 2022 – Takeover Hits A Roadblock
Elon decides to suspend his takeover plans. He mentions that he has suspicions about the data shared by Twitter earlier. Elon claims that only less than 5 percent of total Twitter users are active on the site. He also stated that the price he agreed to pay may be very high.
16th May 2022 – Musk Prepares to Bargain
Elon continued to highlight that the amount he is asked to pay as high. He made a series of statements about his readiness to go ahead and complete the deal at a lower price than already agreed.
8th July 2022 – Elon Pulls Out of The Deal
On 8th July, Elon’s lawyers confirmed that Elon is terminating the agreement and will not proceed to buy the social media platform. Following that was a sharp drop in Twitter’s share prices. Twitter, in response, expressed its intention to take Elon Musk to court for not honoring the contract.
1st to 15th October 2022 – Elon Versus Twitter Heats Up
Multiple blows were exchanged between Twitter and Elon Musk. Elon made a U-turn and announced that he will go forward with the agreed terms of the contract. Twitter did not just accept, instead, Twitter alleges suspicious activity from Elon and calls for investigations.
The court intervened and made attempts to smoothen the process. Finally, things got settled and the takeover gets ready to finally happen.
21st October 2022 – Elon Proposes Job Cut Of 75 Percent of Twitter Employees
Possibly, one of the most shocking announcements in the whole saga. While all other times, it only looked like a board versus Elon, Elon came up with such an intent. Though Elon cited reasons for his possible move of cutting jobs of 75 percent of Twitter employees, there is widespread dismay in the tech world. In fact, there were already discussions about legal reviews and problems that Elon could face if he goes ahead with this decision.
28th October 2022 – Elon Musk Finally Takes Over Twitter
“The Bird is free”, wrote Elon Musk in a tweet. Finally, Elon managed to complete his Twitter takeover. Of course, more drama panned out when Twitter’s top executives including former CEO Parag Agarwal were fired on the first day at the office for Elon Musk.
Top officials fired on the same day created a lot of noise on social media. The saga does not seem to end even with the completion of the takeover. It is reported that the top officials are entitled to humongous sums as compensation. Elon has been trying to get around those clauses and we need to see how it goes from here.
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