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

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

#581

Post by BoiledCabbage »

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…

> The risk portfolio of Vanguard just went up considerably because in the case that they fully lose faith in the board, they no longer have the option of installing a friendly board, they must simply liquidate their holdings. This, in turn, makes them more skeptical of further smaller (non-takeover) investment because it’s more to liquidate and more risk.

It sounds like your interpretation Vanguard's risk profile / likelihood and their interpretation differ. And given that I trust Vanguard's assessment.

Frankly, if I were an institutional investor, I'd probably prefer the poison pill than have Twitter become a toy subject to Elon Musk's random political fight.

Wasn't he all in on Doge coin, except he wasn't, and all in on bitcoin but then not fully, then some other random alt coin, oh and then he's back in on Doge again and how to improve it.

It sounds like sound fiduciary duty to not let your company be subject to those whims.

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

#582

Post by ozay »

8note wrote: post #552
psyc wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this recurring fantasy in which some Satoshi figure creates a decentralized global bulletin board, such that anybody can post and view anything anonymously and untraceably, and nobody - not the U.S. government, nor the CCP, nor the Mossad, nor the NSA - can stop it short of dismantling the whole Internet and starting over. Nobody can blame anybody, because nobody can stop it. Not because I think such a thing i…

It breaks immediately. Somebody writes a unlock euqivalent and maintains ban lists. Everyone subscribes, because otherwise it's full of ads, spam, and edgy 14 year olds repeating slurs like it's Xbox live.

Did you mean uBlock?

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

#583

Post by ineedasername »

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…

Shareholders would benefit from the poison pill because they could buy stock at a nice discount.

Or they could benefit because they believe the new owners would be bad for the business.

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

#584

Post by stephen_g »

TobyTheDog123 wrote: post #537
Waterluvian wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why will the price tank? None of this changes the value of Twitter if he walks away.

A lot of people in this thread share your opinion, but I'm a bit confused by it. If the board acted against the usual shareholder interest (to make money) by turning down an offer 54% above premium, would it not be easy to claim that the board is not in it to make the average investor money on $TWTR? Therefore, wouldn't the value of $TWTR as an investment be far far less than companies who do make it their primary go…

Twitter’s board doesn’t have any obligation to maximise short-term profits for investors (or maximise profits generally) - there has always been a misconception that companies/directors had to by law but the actual laws are much more general.

But at the end of the day, if the board thinks that Twitter may be worth more long term than what Musk is proposing to buy it for, then it’s perfectly reasonable to argue that it’s in the shareholder’s interests not to sell it.

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

#585

Post by chernevik »

haliskerbas wrote: post #564
a-dub wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

from what i understand it's a matter of ideals combined with the technologist's desire to see the machines (all types, including sociopolitical) work correctly. he wants to see the first amendment function with autistic precision. he wants to remove any messy personalization because it interferes with that purity. he wants fully transparent moderation and proof of fairness. he doesn't like the idea that one organizat…

Surprised that he wants to see the “social machine” work but is fine mocking the homeless, the poor, or the hungry. In my opinion the fundamental needs of humans being meant is part of the social machine. Not rich people getting to whine.

You have absolutely zero awareness of the ideas of those you disagree with.

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

#586

Post by Ericson2314 »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #370
woodruffw wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I was a member of Twitter's board, Musk's history of erratic public behavior, SEC settlement, and openly hostile attitude towards the company's employees would be more than sufficient to justify my belief that his controlling ownership would not be in the interest of the current average shareholder. That opinion would also be consistent with how "fiduciary duty" is interpreted by US regulators: companies are not r…

The fate of the company after it has been taken private doesn't matter as far as "fiduciary duty" is concerned.

(To be clear, Musk is a shitshow, but a cash-out is a cash-out. How to balance those things is above my pay-grade.)

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

#587

Post by parineum »

alephnan wrote: post #325
soneca wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument is not that is worth more, it is that it can be worth more in the future than Musk offer. No one can predict the future, but it is a legitimate reason to believe it can be worth more than $54 in the future and pointing that it was worth more last year is just an argument for the belief. Which makes sense to me. As legitimate as it is to believe that the stock price will never again reach $54.

> The argument is not that is worth more, it is that it can be worth more in the future than Musk offer. Then it should be priced for discounted future cash flow and value.

The disconnect between you two seems to be an understanding of what the price of a stock means.

The stock price today represents what investors think the future value might be. The speculation that the dip will bounce back is built into today's price.

The reduced price over the high represents the perceived risk that it won't return.

Musk values the stock higher than the mean investor.

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

#588

Post by imilk »

lettergram wrote: post #513
a-dub wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

from what i understand it's a matter of ideals combined with the technologist's desire to see the machines (all types, including sociopolitical) work correctly. he wants to see the first amendment function with autistic precision. he wants to remove any messy personalization because it interferes with that purity. he wants fully transparent moderation and proof of fairness. he doesn't like the idea that one organizat…

I think musk believes we wouldn’t be on the midst of WWIII if free speech was allowed.

Funny how his free speech ideals come to an end as soon as someone says the word "union" at Tesla.

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

#589

Post by browserman »

hooande wrote: post #485
toephu2 wrote: post #457

Wow, my prediction is Musk will walk away, Twitter stock price will tank, and Twitter will be flooded with thousands of shareholder lawsuits (for breaching their fiduciary duty).

As is detailed by many smart people below, fiduciary duty lawsuits are difficult to win. They'd pretty much have to have board members emailing each other saying "This would be in the best interest of shareholders, but let's screw them over instead" This was an epic debacle. Musk invested 4 BILLION dollars in an asset of questionable value, because "free speech". If he times it right he could come out ahead financial…

After considering it for a bit, my opinion is that it's mostly a political ploy; if he buys it, he'll bring back Trump et. all, expecting that once the GOP is back in power, they'll make any trouble he may be expecting with the SEC and the National Labor Relations Board go away

I think there are probably other factors at play too. His ego, of course. And also the general desire, also evident among VCs like Andreesen, to discipline the Silicon Valley workforce and remind the uppity code-monkeys who's really in charge.

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

#590

Post by friesfreeze »

anonu wrote: post #519
friesfreeze wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poison pills often have exemptions for passive investors such as ETFs.

Don't think that's true. ETF fund managers, when faced with a corporate action decision, will always vote for whatever maximizes their shareholders value.

Courts have upheld poison pills that treat 13D and 13G filers differently. I'd wager most ETFs that hold 5% of major public companies are 13G filers. Vanguard files a 13G for twitter. To be fair idk what the twitter pill will do - maybe it will be more aggressive.
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