Twitter bought by Musk - what happens to my Twitter shares?

Elon Musk has been arguably the most controversial Twitter celebrity for a long time (of course, we remember you, Mr. Trump). And this time, he announced that he sealed the deal with Twitter to buy all the shares of the company to make it his private one. This article will explain what has been happening between the little-bird-marked SNS and the CEO of the most popular e-car maker and what individual shareholders of Twitter can expect to happen to their Twitter shares. For those who have not followed the Twitter-Musk news so far, this article is to brief on you what's been happening and what to expect next.

So, What Happened? 

It was a day in 2017 when Elon Musk tweeted "I love Twitter so much" and someone replied, "Then you should buy it". Maybe this is the inception we casually missed out on but brought us today's announcement that 'Elon Musk has bought Twitter.'

In early April, it was revealed that the CEO of Tesla owned about 9% of the Twitter shares. Reaction to this was people specfulating how Musk will change Twitter's policy. Apparently, he has so many ideas and opinions on how Twitter should run. The news also reminded people of Trump's attempts to make his version of Twitter. And the stock price of Twitter touched about $52 briefly but fell back down to fortysomething. 

A few days went by leaving people still wondering what Elon Musk would do about Twitter. And there was another news that he made an offer to buy Twitter for $54.2 per share. It seems Twitter executives and the board members were not happy with the offer though, because they exercised the clause so-called 'Poison Deal' which allows existing shareholders to buy the company's shares at a discounted price. But they quickly changed their minds and unanimously agreed to let their SNS company go to the world's richest man after Musk said he has $46.5B ready to buy Twitter. It seems the members of the board decided that they cannot beat him with their money. Now that the two parties agreed on the deal, the rest is administrative work to be done before the SNS changes hands. 

What Happens Next?

There are three dimensions of procedure to complete the deal, which are:

• Due diligence
• Government permission
• Shareholders vote

Just like any good buyer would do, Musk has to take a close look at what he's buying. Musk will have his army of consultants inspect the accounting book of Twitter. But whatever the results of that due diligence, they would not be a deal-breaker because the world's richest man did not want the SNS for its financial prosepct.

The US government and EU's administration against monopoly will review the deal before giving their blessings. The chance these two would veto is very slim because Musk's buying of Twitter will not lead to creating a dominant body of the market. The biggest challenge of this will probably be the time it would take, which is expected to be months. 

The shareholders of Twitter will be asked if they are on the same page. Though there's an optimistic forecast about the shares' growth to $78, the shareholders will be in favor of selling their stocks since the Twitter stock price growth has been disappointing compared to other SNS platforms like Facebook or Instagram. 

Given all, there seem to be no biggest challenges in Musk's path to owning his favorite SNS. 

Then, what happens to my Twitter shares?

If you are a Twitter shareholder, you will be asked to vote for/against the deal. This will likely to take place during the annual shareholders' meeting in May. Currently, the stock price of Twitter is about $51-52. If you are happy with the that price and want to exit early, you can choose to sell now. Or you can patiently wait for the deal to be complete and for Musk to send you the money he promised in exchange for your shares.