Thoma Bravo, an American private equity and growth capital firm, has expressed its interest to acquire the microblogging and social networking service Twitter, amid the rivalry acquisition offer of Tesla CEO Mr. Elon Musk’s $43 billion bid.
According to sources, Thoma Bravo, with more than $103 billion in assets under management as of the end of December, has contacted Twitter to explore the possibility of putting together a bid.
Recently, in an opinion poll floated on Twitter by billionaire Mr. Musk, the majority, that is 83.5 percent, voted and said that the decision of the acquisition should rest with the shareholders of the company and not the board. The other 16.5 percent were in favor of the board making the ultimate decision.
Thoma Bravo has not disclosed the offering amount and there is no certainty that such a rival bid will materialize, the sources noted.
Twitter, to thwart Mr. Musk’s uninvited offer to take the company private, adopted a poison pill defense strategy, which allows existing shareholders the right to purchase additional shares at a discount, effectively diluting the ownership interest of the hostile party. Poison pills are frequently used by companies facing activist investors or hostile takeover situations.
Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns a stake in Twitter through his Kingdom Holding Company, rejected Mr. Musk’s offer, saying that the proposed offer did not “come close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects”.
To counter the poison pill strategy, Mr. Musk is reportedly working on a ‘Plan B’, which involves talking to potential investors about partnering on the Twitter acquisition.
