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Comment by fairity | Hacker News Reader

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 his final offer.

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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)

He said it's not an economic decision, that doesn't mean price he pays isn't considered; he also said it's his final offer, whether that's just presenting a firm stance as a negotiating tactic or not, I don't know; ~$40 billion investment (far less) could create a better platform than Twitter with mass but it wouldn't be a head start that it looks like he's wanting to buy.

40 billion is the price of existing users and brand. Almost anyone can create a platform even with less than million.

or the stock can be dumped with public fanfare, bringing it to a fantastically low price. Then, it can be purchased back, even with the 25% premium, likely for the same total price.

This is wishful thinking. I doubt elons sale would have the effect you expect.

did you notice how much it rallied once his position was announced? It was the biggest stock move in the company's recent history.

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