Just to verify that I understood the concept I looked up the definition of "hostile takeover" from various places, its common theme is taking over a company without approval of the board.
The actual offer states [0]:
>As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
Which means he is asking for approval, which seems to contradict the headline and the quote from Mirabaud Equity Research which was used to make the headline more sensational as they were quoted saying “This becomes a hostile takeover offer which is going to cost a serious amount of cash”.
If the board disapproves of the offer and he acquires a larger stake of ownership, that would be more inline with what a hostile takeover is.
I think you're right, but you almost nailed it. Musk low-balled because he wants the offer to be rejected, so the stock price dips, so he can buy up enough stock at discount for a hostile takeover.
Is it brilliant, or is it standard operating procedure for stuff like this? I would assume most hostile takeovers follow some similar path and also try to manipulate the stock a bit in a way favorable to themselves with their actions prior to the actual final takeover attempt.
I think the brilliant part was where he got 1M+ responses to his polls about the problems with Twitter. The timing for that prior to rejecting the board seat was pre-meditated brilliancy.
The actual offer states [0]:
>As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
Which means he is asking for approval, which seems to contradict the headline and the quote from Mirabaud Equity Research which was used to make the headline more sensational as they were quoted saying “This becomes a hostile takeover offer which is going to cost a serious amount of cash”.
If the board disapproves of the offer and he acquires a larger stake of ownership, that would be more inline with what a hostile takeover is.
[0] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001418091/000110465...