Twitter Shares Rise As Elon Musk & Jack Dorsey Slam Board Amid Speculation On Rival Bids
deadline.comTwitter stock popped higher Monday, heading closer to Elon Musk’s $54.20-per-share offer, as he bad-mouthed the company’s board amid rumors of other possible bids.The shares rose nearly 7.5% to close at $48.45 in the second full trading day since Thursday, when the Tesla CEO made what he called a “last and final offer” to buy the social media company.
The move was a big surprise, including to Twitter. The board quickly put in place a “poison pill” to thwart a hostile takeover even as they said they were considering Musk’s bid.“Board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds, so that’s ~$3M/year saved right there,” Musk tweeted Monday (responding to a tweet listing the salaries of Twitter directors).Musk had previously tweet-slammed the board that he said “collectively owns almost no shares!
Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.” That didn’t include Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who does own stock but is planning to step down from the board at the company’s annual meeting in May,In a few unusual tweets of his own, Dorsey slammed the Twitter board too, saying, “it’s consistently been the dysfunction of the company” and quoting what he called a “Silicon Valley proverb”: “Good boards don’t create good companies, but a bad board will kill a company every time.”Dorsey stepped down as chief executive last November.
Twitter’s chief technology officer Parad Agrawal now has the reins.Twitter’s stock was buoyed in part by speculation that others bidders might jump in.
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