The comprehensive takeover of Twitter by entrepreneur Elon Musk means that the social media giant is now a fully private company, with Twitter’s stock now delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). A filing was issued with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating its intention to “remove the entire class of the stated securities from listing”.
The filing also confirms that Musk’s subsidiary X Holdings II, Inc. had merged with Twitter following his buyout. Consequently, parent company X Holdings I, Inc. now owns every single Twitter stock. The document also confirmed that all existing Twitter shareholders will receive a price of $54.20 per share – a value that shareholders overwhelmingly accepted back in September. It brings the end to the social media network’s stock market journey, which began back in 2013 following a successful initial public offering that raised an initial $1.8bn.
Although Twitter shares will no longer be tradeable on the NYSE, or indeed any other marketplace, there are plenty of other Silicon Valley giants still available for retail traders to get involved in. Using contracts for difference (CFD) brokers, it’s possible for individuals to go long (buy) or short (sell) on tech conglomerates without even having to own the underlying asset. When it comes to buying and selling a CFD stock online, you’ll be required to pay a commission to your chosen broker. This is usually charged as a percentage figure of 0.10% of the total value of your position or at a cost of $0.02 per share traded.
A new board of directors is highly likely at Twitter
There is highly likely to be a new make-up of directors at the boardroom level at Twitter. All of the existing members are required to dissolve, while Musk took bold steps to remove several senior staff within days of his takeover. Chief executive Parag Agrawal has been fired along with chief financial officer Ned Segal and head of legal policy, trust and safety Vijaya Gadde. Under the terms of the deal, Agrawal is set to receive around $50m in severance pay, while Segal and Gadde are likely to get $37m and $17m respectively.
In the meantime, Musk has appointed himself as Agrawal’s replacement, with Musk hellbent on turning the social brand into a profitable concern.
How much money was Twitter losing?
According to Musk, Twitter has been losing upwards of $4m per day. It has been seriously affected by a “massive” revenue decline from advertisers, some of which have paused spending during the cost-of-living crisis. All of which have added further weight to the company’s overall debt burden.
It explains why Musk took the bold decision to cut around half of Twitter’s global workforce – a move that raised eyebrows across the financial markets. Reports suggest savings from staff cuts will equate to $400m annually, which only plugs a third of the daily losses when extrapolated across an entire year.
Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey went public to shoulder the responsibility for the platform’s recent losses and inefficiencies. Dorsey admitted he expanded the company “too quickly” in recent years. As for Dorsey’s future endeavors, he is currently working on a decentralized version of Twitter, Bluesky.
