Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#231

Post by woadwarrior01 » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #206

recuter wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That sentence alone means you weren't even discussing this in good faith. Is that what good faith means now? Being religiously part of Camp A or B? The balance sheet speaks for itself. Incidentally Parler or his potential Twitter clone will also end up a toxic internet community. Who cares? I personally wouldn't use either one. Certainly with Twitter already doing a great job losing money and alienating most people…

> The balance sheet speaks for itself a) Revenue increased 37% y/y. b) User count growing at 2% y/y. c) Profit of $273m in 2021 when you exclude once-off litigation expense. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/twitter-announces-f...

> c) Profit of $273m in 2021 when you exclude once-off litigation expense.

The once-off litigation expense might soon be recuring in 2022, after this move. The former was a shareholder class action lawsuit, and the latter will most likely be the same.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#232

Post by Majromax » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

and-not-drew wrote: post #175

hackernewds wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that selection bias seems to project that buying before a share split is actually not an educated+good decision

I think it still is. I'm going to try to find a source, but I saw an analysis where they measured from a year before the split, the day the split was announced, and the day the split was executed all until one year after the split was executed and the returns on all of them beat the market as a whole. That being said, holding before the announcement performed the best.

> I'm going to try to find a source, but I saw an analysis where they measured from a year before the split,

There's a bit of time travel / survivor bias with this one. A company that has not beaten the market is much less likely to split its stock. In other words, if I know nothing other than that a company is splitting its stock, I can reasonably guess that it's shown good returns in recent history.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#233

Post by dev_tty01 » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:52 PM UTC

nickysielicki wrote: post #41

themitigating wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're claiming that Musk's purchase of twitter is objectively good for shareholders

Given that it’s at a share price premium for 90%+ of the lifetime of the stock since IPO, yes. Most shares were bought below the price Musk is asking.

Today's price and the 'expected' future price is all that matters. The 90% lifetime price history is not relevant. All transactions of this nature are based on future value. The offer is only an 18% premium at a time when many tech stocks are being hammered due to extrinsic reasons. It is not a serious offer.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#234

Post by tomatowurst » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

fairity wrote: post #66

People are overlooking the fact that a poison pill will likely increase the price of Musk's final offer, and in doing so will maximize shareholder value. Put another way, Musk may be willing to pay a lot more than a 25% premium for Twitter (he already said he doesn't care about price). Without this poison pill, Musk can force a takeover by accumulating shares. With this poison pill, the board has leverage to maximize…

I don't think its possible for Musk to ever attain 51%, everytime the price sinks and he accrues shares, they would just choose to issue more shares diluting his equity.

really think Musk knew this ahead of time...but what's his end goal i can't figure out. is it to profit off his purchase? because if he wanted to acquire 51% this is the worst way to do it (creating a hostile board who can at will issue infinite amount of shares)

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#235

Post by mym1990 » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

Not well versed in any of this, but could this be Musk just toying around with Twitter and/or him bluffing to get a reaction? Does he have any legal obligation to go through with the purchase if Twitter was open to it?

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#236

Post by stale2002 » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

tyre wrote: post #139

_3u10 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I made 10% getting in after the disclosure was made. I’d actually invest in a twitter owned by Elon and likely ditch all my other profiles too. A platform that makes money and has free speech would be wonderful. Maybe he can steal Rogan from Spotify too.

What’s a concrete example of speech that you’d make which is specifically banned on Twitter?

> What’s a concrete example of speech

The example that people use, would be any speech that legal within the US.

If it is illegal, then most anti-censorship advocates are still fine with it being banned. But generally speaking, the best case scenario for them would be all legal speech in the US.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#237

Post by dev_tty01 » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:56 PM UTC

metadat wrote: post #102

loceng wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, what happens when Elon starts his own platform instead and uses some of the ~$40 billion he'd otherwise buy Twitter with instead on paying top users of Twitter to exclusively use his platform instead?

I'd ditch twtr in a heartbeat, at this point it's a cesspool in every sense.

There are already alternatives to Twitter. Why haven't you ditched it already?

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#238

Post by cryptonector » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:58 PM UTC

randyrand wrote: post #174

randyrand wrote: post #82

How are poison pills legal? If the board can make arbitrary rules can’t they just zero out Musks or anyone else’s shares right now? Or say “Anyone with the last name of Musk now owns type D share with 1/100th ownership value”. Poison pills seems pretty close to doing just that.

From ArsTechnica: “Even before Friday, Twitter had bylaws that "could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying, or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors," the company said in a February 2022 SEC filing. That includes "a classified board of directors whose members serve staggered three-year terms," and the ability to "authoriz[e] 'blank check' preferred stock, which could…

Then there's the question of whether such bylaws should be legal.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#239

Post by mike_d » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:58 PM UTC

hedora wrote: post #161

nickysielicki wrote: post #29

I don’t understand how any board can implement a “poison pill”, not just Twitter but Netflix and others, and not be found working against the interest of shareholders. Can anyone help me understand? You’re categorically changing the profile of the stock. This has a chilling effect on large investors, including but not limited just to Musk, right? Vanguard, for example, has just had its range of further investment lim…

Wait, if some ETF accidentally exceeds 15%, then what? First of all, that'll screw over a bunch of small investors, right? Second, could Elon swoop in at that point? Edit: Also, if Elon is reading this, I'll happily buy 14.9% of twitter, and vote as part of your block. Just pay me enough to cover the sale and taxes, plus 1%.

> Edit: Also, if Elon is reading this, I'll happily buy 14.9% of twitter, and vote as part of your block. Just pay me enough to cover the sale and taxes, plus 1%.

You might want to speak with a lawyer who is familiar with inchoate crime.

What you publicly proposed to Elon is a crime, since you intend to conceal beneficial ownership of shares.

Re: Twitter board adopts poison pill after Musk’s $43B bid to buy company

#240

Post by metadat » Fri, Apr 15, 2022, 9:58 PM UTC

politician wrote: post #202

themitigating wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What should be allowed?

Twitter’s speech moderation policies should be public, and all decisions pertaining to speech should be public, and there should be a public appeals process before a jury of the speaker’s peers.

That's a lot to ask when each user account is free.

You're basically replicating the US Courts Legal System, except those on trial pay 0% taxes. Not viable.

Keep thinking though, we need a hero of an idea to make forward progress on the question of what strategy is best for US-based public companies, and what their role is in showing the world what the gold standard for "freedom of speech" online looks like.