Elon Musk Bid For Twitter Gets Political As Lawmakers Demand Records
Elon Musk’s bid to acquire Twitter hit a new speed bump April 22, when Republican lawmakers said they want the company to retain all records relating to its buyout offer from the tech billionaire.
Musk has offered $46.5 billion for Twitter, of which he owns 9.2%, and he outlined how he would finance the deal earlier this week.
That bid gained new ground April 22 when Musk filed documents with the SEC outlining three new holding companies he has created.
Dubbed X Holdings I, II and III, the filing states that Musk and his investment partners would use all three companies “directly or indirectly” to acquire Twitter.
Twitter has continued to rebuff the overtures, and the Vanguard Group has since secured a larger share of the company than Musk.
The company also adopted a “poison pill” strategy to keep any one entity from buying more than 15% of Twitter, in a Hail Mary attempt to ward off a hostile takeover.
Now, however, the bid for Twitter is raising two other major questions: Who else may want to buy the company, and will a deal be scuttled by increasingly aggressive lawmakers?
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty
It’s Getting Political
On April 22, a group of 18 Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee asked Twitter’s board to preserve all communications it has regarding Musk’s bid.
“Among other things, the Board’s reactions to Elon Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter, and outsider opposition to Musk’s role in Twitter’s future are concerning,” Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and the other 17 lawmakers wrote.
Republicans have been particularly keen to focus on how Twitter operates given its move to ban former President Donald Trump following the violent Jan. 6, 2021 attempt to overturn his election loss.
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“Decisions regarding Twitter’s future governance will undoubtedly be consequential for public discourse in the United States and could give rise to renewed efforts to legislate in furtherance of preserving free expression online,” the letter said.
The group addressed the letter to Twitter Board Chairman Bret Taylor and all other members of the board, signaling that if Republicans win back a majority after November’s midterms, they may put Twitter directly in their sites.
Twitter banned Trump from its platform “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” in the wake of the assault on the U.S. Capitol.
“As Congress continues to examine Big Tech and how to best protect Americans’ free speech rights, this letter serves as a formal request that you preserve all records and materials relating to Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter, including Twitter’s consideration and response to this offer, and Twitter’s evaluation of its shareholder interests with respect to Musk’s offer,” the letter said.
“You should construe this preservation notice as an instruction to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that is or may be potentially responsive to this congressional inquiry,” the letter said.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
You can read the full letter from the Republicans here.
Other Suitors May Be Watching
Musk’s attempt to acquire Twitter may now have sparked other bidders to take a close look at buying the company.
Former suitors have included Disney and Salesforce, but both scuttled deals before they could be completed.
But the potential for someone to snap up a major place for discourse is looking more attractive now that Musk is involved, even if previous bids have faltered.
“The cultural influence of Twitter is just as great as Facebook and yet it’s one-twentieth of the size,” Mark Mahaney, an investment analyst with Evercore ISI, told the New York Times. “That makes people ask, “‘What is wrong with Twitter?’”
