"Will Defeat The Spam Bots Or Die Trying!": Elon Musk On Plans For Twitter

Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, known for making controversial remarks on social media, today tweeted, "we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!" if his Twitter bid succeeds. He added that authenticating "all real humans" is also part of the plan. Though it's not clear what Mr Musk meant by authentication, his tweet has sparked speculation that he plans to do away with anonymous accounts on the microblogging site. The billionaire tech mogul has been making headlines recently as he plans a hostile take over of Twitter.

If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022

Mr Musk recently bought a 9.1 per cent stake in the social media giant to become the second-biggest shareholder of the company. Last week, Tesla's CEO made an offer of 43 billion dollars to buy the social media company, but it seems that the company adopted the 'poison pill' strategy to prevent him from raising his stake in the company.

Mr Musk has secured a funding commitment of 46.5 billion dollars to buy Twitter Inc and is planning to start a tender offer for its shares, a filing with US regulators showed on Thursday. He himself has committed to putting up 33.5 billion dollars, which will include 21 billion dollars of equity and 12.5 billion dollars of margin loans, to finance the transaction.

Banks, including Morgan Stanley, have agreed to provide another $13 billion in debt secured against Twitter itself, according to the filing.

To halt a takeover, the board of Twitter planned to activate the 'poison pill' if the Tesla CEO comes to own more than 15 per cent of Twitter, several news reports said.

Such a "pill" would allow other Twitter shareholders to purchase shares at half price, increasing the number of shares in circulation and weakening Mr Musk's influence.

It would then be nearly impossible for him to take total control of the company without having to spend significantly more than he had originally planned.

Taking a swipe at the board of Twitter a day after the company reportedly adopted the "poison pill", Mr Musk had said, "Board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds, so that's $3M/year saved right there."

Mr Musk had earlier refused the offer to join the board of Twitter. 

In recent days, the Tesla CEO has tweeted product ideas from eliminating advertising for members of Twitter's subscription service to turning part of its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter. Without a board seat, there are no longer restrictions on how many shares he can buy, or on his tweeting, Bloomberg reported.