After Twitter adopted a "poison pill" to thwart an attempt by Elon Musk to takeover the company, its co-founder Jack Dorsey has slammed the micro-blogging giant's board.
Reacting to a user, Dorsey said, it (the board) is consistently been the dysfunction of the company.
Jack Dorsey handed over the baton to Indian-origin Parag Agrawal last November, but he still remains a board member until next month with his 2.2% share.
Earlier, Elon Musk said the economic interests of Twitter Inc.’s board are not aligned with shareholders after the social media company took steps to ward off his takeover attempt.
The billionaire was responding to a tweet about boardmembers’ stock holdings, saying that with the departure of Jack Dorsey, the board “collectively owns almost no shares."
The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer on Thursday offered $54.20 a share in cash for Twitter, valuing the company at $43 billion. Musk, who said it was his “best and final" offer, had already accrued a stake of more than 9% in Twitter since earlier this year.
In addition to Musk’s offer, Twitter has been fielding takeover interest from other parties, including technology-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are advising Twitter.
Twitter on Friday set up a shareholder rights plan that could thwart Musk’s hostile acquisition bid. The plan is exercisable if a party acquires 15% of the stock without prior approval and seeks to ensure that anyone taking control of Twitter through open market accumulation pays all shareholders an appropriate control premium.
Responding to a subsequent tweet by a user about whether the so-called poison pill plan could amount to “criminal negligence," Musk said the plan could be “more of a concern about other potential bidders" instead of “just" him.
A poison pill defense strategy allows existing shareholders the right to purchase additional shares at a discount, effectively diluting the ownership interest of the hostile party. Poison pills are common among companies under fire from activist investors or in hostile takeover situations.
Since making the offer, Musk has been actively posting on his Twitter account in what appears to be a social media campaign to sway public opinion in favor of his bid.
