- "I'm going to buy twitter", buys a bunch of shares, has to report it
- Board says "No", adopts poison pill
- "Fine, I'll make you let me buy you" submits a contingent but binding offer to the board.
- Board says, well, our duty is to the shareholders, you're offering a big premium, we accept, here's a bunch of terms to keep you from backing out without paying them something.
- "Ha Ha!" shouts Elon, "I've proven I can buy anything now!"
- Yes, yes, say the banks as they bind him and his companies stock to the tender offer, you can buy that, we just want TSLA stock, that's fine.
- Stock market looks at the situation and says "wat", down-values TSLA because their CEO is spending his time buying... a social media platform?
- Musk starts to see the writing on the wall and realizes if he can't make twitter substantially more valuable in the short term, he's on the hook for a large chunk of his personal wealth (which hurts) but also a large chunk of his company (which hurts the ego) and starts to suffer buyers remorse.
- "Ha ha" says the board, you can get out any time you'd like, we'd just like our 10-digit check.
- looks for an escape clause - maybe you committed securities fraud Mr. Twitter? Check again for me would you?
I mean, broad strokes, this has been the saga in front of us - rich man wants to do something silly, gets told no, gets more determined, and fights tooth and nail, and finally, regrets his decision.
So now, _either_ he was short-sighted and wanted to buy a company he'd failed to do due diligence on and is trying to get out of the purchase that way, OR he has heap big buyers remorse, pays a billion and gets out of it that way, or he becomes the proud partial owner of a social media company with limited network effects. Who knows, but he had already staked up 7% or so beforehand - so 3B give or take, didn't back down looking into their numbers then, and only _after_ ponying up another 35B did he think, you know, maybe this is a bad idea.
But I just got an air popper, so please, let the show go on.
