Musk's two consecutive tweets disrupted the market. First, after "transaction suspension" and then "still committed to acquisition", the CEO of twitter sent a series of tweets saying, "although I expect the transaction to be completed, we need to be prepared for all situations and always do what is good for twitter. I am responsible for leading and operating twitter, and our job is to build a stronger Twitter every day."
Not long ago, Musk's sentence of "transaction suspension" stimulated the already frightened market again, and Twitter's share price plunged by more than 20% in the short term before trading. Two hours later, musk updated his tweet that he was still committed to acquiring twitter to bring Twitter's share price back to life. However, on Friday, the social media platform still fell 9.67% to $40.72, still lower than Musk's previous purchase price of $54.2 per share.
On May 13, as mentioned in an earlier article on Wall Street, Tesla CEO musk said that the acquisition of twitter was suspended and said he was waiting for more details to prove whether the data that Twitter claimed that spam / false accounts accounted for less than 5% of active users was true.
Subsequently, twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said on Friday that he still expected Musk's acquisition of Twitter to proceed smoothly, but he would also be fully prepared.
Although I expect the deal to be completed, we need to be prepared for all situations and always do what's good for twitter. I am responsible for leading and operating twitter. Our job is to build a stronger Twitter every day.
On twitter, no one works just to make a living. We are proud of our work. Regardless of the future ownership of the company, we are here to improve Twitter's products and business for customers, partners, shareholders and all of you.
The day before, Agrawal announced in an internal memo that it would freeze recruitment and other cost cutting measures, saying twitter would not recruit new employees in the near future and might revoke the employment notice that had been issued. However, some key business positions will have exceptions, which depends on their leadership. The memo also showed that Twitter would also cut travel, consulting and marketing costs. In addition, two senior leaders will also leave the company, namely kayvon beykpour, the head of the company's consumers, and Bruce Falck, the head of revenue products, will leave the company.
Agrawal's tweet on Friday also explained the changes and future direction of the leadership team and operation strategy:
We announced changes to our leadership team and operations yesterday. It's always hard to influence people's changes. Some people have been asking why a "lame" CEO would make these changes if we would be acquired anyway... Because our industry is in a very challenging macro environment. I will not use the transaction as an excuse to avoid making important decisions for the healthy development of the company, nor will any leader of twitter.
So, what are your expectations for my future? I am still focused on doing my job well, which includes making difficult decisions when needed. I will continue to accept the profound complexity of our services and business. And you can expect more changes to make our life better.
I will also strive to bring more transparency to our work. You won't see me posting "daily topics" or the loudest voice on twitter, but about the continuous, continuous and challenging work of our team to improve public dialogue on twitter.
Finally, thank you very much to our entire twitter team. They are strong and focused, sharp and agile. They have been doing these jobs, just as they have been doing. Move on.
As for Musk's "scare" market, what is it? According to media analysis, Musk's reason for shelving the transaction may be to obtain a better transaction price and reduce the price of his acquisition offer through the decline of Twitter's share price.
Toni sacconaghi, senior research analyst at Bernstein, explained:
This may be a negotiation strategy on behalf of Elon, and the market has fallen a lot.
But the fact is that musk can't easily leave the deal because he will have to pay a $1 billion breakup fee and face default litigation, which will cost him billions of dollars more.