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Twitter is trying to thwart billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover attempt with a “poison pilll," a financial device that companies have been wielding against unwelcome suitors for decades.So what, exactly, is a poison pill?The ingredients of each poison pill vary, but they’re all designed to give corporate boards an option to flood the market with so much newly created stock that a takeover becomes prohibitively expensive. The strategy was popularized back in the 1980s when publicly held companies were being stalked by corporate raiders such as Carl Icahn – now more frequently described as “activist investors.”Twitter didn’t disclose the details of its poison pill Friday, but said it would provide more information in a forthcoming filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the company delayed because public markets were closed Friday.The San Francisco company’s plan will be triggered if a shareholder accumulates a stake of 15% or more. Musk, best known as CEO of electric car maker Tesla, currently holds a roughly 9% stake.THE LATEST:  Twitter unleashes poison pill; another suitor comes callingCan a poison pill be a negotiating play?Although they are supposed to help prevent an unsolicited takeover, poison pills also often open the door to further negotiations that can force…

The tweets are many but the message is the same."You need to run for president dude," says one.'Just Run for President'The 'dude' in question is Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Tesla Inc Report CEO Elon Musk and Twitter is heating up with demands that the world's richest man make a run for the White House."Elon 2024 for President!!! Let’s Go!!!" one person said. "Elon Musk should run for President," says another."Elon just run for president!" another one implores.Musk, who also founded SpaceX, disbanded his public relations department in 2020 so getting comments about this or anything else is somewhat challenging.Twitter  (TWTR) - Get Twitter, Inc. Report seems to be the appropriate place for such presidential chatter, seeing that Musk's latest meme move was an offer to buy the microblogging website for $42 billion and take it private.The offer came just days after Musk declined an offer to join the company's board.One commenter posted an image of Musk in a superhero costume looking over New York City."Should bought shares in Twitter a month ago," the caption read. "Either way I support #ElonMusk taking it over. Elon for President 2024.""LOL this is awesome," one poster said. "You should try to run for president after this."Some posters were…

Twitter on Friday said it adopted a "poison pill" plan that could block billionaire Elon Musk from significantly increasing his stake in the social media company. The counter-measure comes a day after Tesla CEO Musk unveiled a $43 billion hostile offer for Twitter. In a statement, Twitter said that the new plan will reduce the chances that any person, group or company could take control of Twitter through purchases of stock on the open market without paying "an appropriate control premium" or giving the board enough time "to make informed judgments."What is Musk really doing with his $43 billion offer to buy Twitter?Musk, who earlier this month disclosed he owns a 9.2% stake in Twitter, proposed in a regulatory filing on Thursday to buy all of the company's outstanding common stock for $54.20 per share. But investors signaled they viewed the offer with skepticism, with the stock actually closing below its price from the prior day, at $45.08 per share.  One major investor has already come out against the offer. Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who controls more than 4% of Twitter according to Bloomberg News, said on Thursday that "I reject" the offer. In his offer letter, Musk said he wants to take the…

(Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. adopted a measure that would shield it from hostile acquisition bids, taking steps to thwart billionaire Elon Musk’s unwelcome offer to take the company private and attempt to make it a bastion of free speech.Most Read from BloombergElon Musk Makes $43 Billion Unsolicited Bid to Take Twitter PrivateElon Musk Also Threatened to Buy My Company. Here’s How We Handled ItRussia’s Sunken Warship Dents Its Pride and CapabilitiesTwitter Is Weighing a Poison Pill Defense to Thwart Elon Musk’s Takeover BidHarry and Meghan 'Offer An Olive Branch' to Queen in Surprise VisitThe board set up a shareholder rights plan, exercisable if a party acquires 15% of the stock without prior approval, lasting for one year only. The plan seeks to ensure that anyone taking control of the social media company through open market accumulation pays all shareholders an appropriate control premium, according to a statement Friday.Twitter enacted the plan to buy time, according to a person familiar with the matter. The board, which met Thursday to review the bid, wants to be able to analyze and negotiate any deal, and may still accept it.The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer on Thursday offered $54.20 a share in cash for…

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees Thursday that the company was still evaluating a $43 billion offer by Elon Musk to buy the company and take it private, setting the stage for a potentially drawn-out feud with the world’s richest person. After clips of the songs “I Say A Little Prayer” and “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys played, Agrawal launched into a 25-minute Q&A session with employees Thursday, according to a person in attendance. He didn’t say when the board would have an answer to Musk’s offer or which way it was leaning, frustrating some who expected a more detailed explanation. The board would follow a “rigorous process” and make a decision “in the best interest of our shareholders,” he said. Agrawal, who took over as CEO of Twitter last November for Jack Dorsey, fielded concerns from employees about the future of the social network if Musk were to take it over. At least one employee asked about the possibility of future layoffs, which Agrawal said wouldn’t be dictated by individual performance ratings. In response to another question about what would happen to employee stock options if Twitter was taken private, he said it was too…

Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal sits for an interview with Reuters in the office of the suite where he has been detained at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 27, 2018, REUTERS/Katie Paul Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comCAIRO, April 14 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on Thursday that as one of the major shareholders in Twitter he rejected a takeover bid by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk."I don't believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 per share) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects," the prince said in a Twitter post.Musk took aim at Twitter Inc with a $43 billion cash takeover offer on Thursday, with the Tesla CEO saying the social media giant needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech. read more Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Omar Fahmy and Saeed Azhar Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

After a week of headlines related to Elon Musk becoming Twitter’s largest shareholder, the billionaire is being sued for waiting too long to disclose his 9.2 per cent stake in the social media company. A proposed class action lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday by Marc Bain Rasella, an investor who sold Twitter shares before Musk announced his stake in the company on April 4.That day, Twitter shares rose 27 per cent, from US$39.31 to $49.97, as investors raced to buy stock in the company to which the richest person in the world had ostensibly given his vote of confidence.U.S. federal law requires investors to disclose to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within 10 days when they have acquired five per cent of a company, which in Musk’s case would have been March 24. Story continues below advertisement Between March 25 and 29, Rasella said he sold 35 Twitter shares at an average price of $39.23, amounting to $1,373. He claims that Musk defrauded investors like him, who sold Twitter shares at lower prices between March 24 — when Musk’s announcement should have been made public — and April 4 — when it actually was…

Elon Musk was sued on Tuesday by former Twitter shareholders who claim they missed out on the recent run-up in its stock price because he waited ...

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A few days ago, Elon Musk asked his 81 million followers, “Is Twitter dying?” Musk calls himself a “free speech absolutist” — opposed to any restrictions on what someone can say online — and he has indicated he thinks the social media platform is heading in the wrong direction on the matter. Musk, as the CEO of two major public companies, has faced backlash and even legal repercussions for his impulsive tweets that have misled investors and caused his companies’ stock prices to fluctuate. Now, he’s Twitter’s largest shareholder after buying a 9.2 percent stake in the company. The move has prompted whirlwind speculation around why Musk has bought such a large stake and what the future holds for Twitter. After Musk walked back plans to join the company’s board of directors over the weekend, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in a note to the company that the decision was “for the best,” and urged employees to “tune out the noise” surrounding recent changes. But it’s difficult to tune out Elon Musk, which underscores the reach he has as a famed tech entrepreneur and wealthiest man in the world. If his recent tweets are anything to go by, Musk is…