What's a poison pill and how is Twitter using one to block Elon Musk from buying it? – USA Today

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…
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