Billionaire Elon Musk made waves after revealing he's making an attempt at a hostile takeover of the social media platform Twitter. The Tesla CEO is offering $43 billion to buy the social media platform outright with "freedom of speech" allegedly at the forefront of his agenda. Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, is taking the tech entrepreneur seriously. "I think through many twists and turns over the coming months, he ultimately ends up owning Twitter because Twitter's board, their back is going to be against the wall," he said.

Closing Bell

Dan Ives Foresees That Elon Musk 'Ultimately Ends Up Owning Twitter'

Okay, well let's talk to our next guest here because Elon musk is trying to buy all of twitter, Yes, musk, who recently bought a 9.2% stake in the social media company is now offering to buy 100% of twitter for $54.20 a share. That comes out to $43 billion Twitter in cash. Well, Twitter's board um is holding an emergency meeting to weigh Musk's offer. Well, must for his part spoke at a TED conference today claiming it's um all an attempt to protect free speech, but not everyone is accepting that at face value. So joining me now is dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush dana. What do you make of this? What do you think? The chances are that Elon musk buys twitter outright? Look, I think through many twists and turns over the coming months, he ultimately ends up owning twitter because twitter is bored, their back is going to be against the wall. Just given this bid, they'll have the financing for its street, will doubt it. Uh you know, in terms of, as it all plays out, but this is a serious bid and ultimately really feeds the fire for the board, they're going to have to look at potential turn of bids and I believe that this premium relative to, you know what he's looking to do, You know, musk at the end of the day ends up with twitter, So what does this mean for twitter, I mean, do we have any indication dan, if you are the Elon musk expert as to what Elon musk would do with twitter. Look, I think there's more questions than answers and I think that those are not just investors, but employees. Right. I mean all hands, you know, twitter headquarters because I think many, you know, they'd rather redo their resumes and figure out, you know, in terms of working for musk. So I think there's gonna be a lot of platform changes, freedom of speech clearly is front and center now investors, of course, it's okay, how are you going to monetize? What's the advertising model? How would that change for the average consumer? But I can tell you, I mean, I think the twitter that we know this error, I think the clock struck midnight with this bid, I think that changed it forever and now it's a matter of get the popcorn out as a soap opera plays out. Okay, so why twitter, I mean, twitter has been the de facto mouthpiece of Elon musk is no doubt about that in many ways. It's been an effective marketing tool for Tesla as well as Elon musk himself, but why would musk focus on twitter out of all the social platforms out there? It's a great question and they clearly must, that's been synonymous with twitter, I mean it's, it's been a platform of choice, but it was right for the, I would say a corporate takeover, I mean Dorsey was going to the background, you look at the shareholder base, it's been underperforming asset. A lot of frustration from investors, from, you know, we'll call an activist breeding ground for twitter. So I think must recognize this was the time to strike the platform and brand speaks for itself in terms of the global reach and now it really becomes a game of Thrones situation. I think the board try to make it friendly getting musk on the board, but musk was never going to be someone that sat on the board eating cheese and crackers just listening to board minutes. So right now this, you know, I would expect the board would officially probably, they'll look at it, they will decline the initial bid and then this really becomes that sort of negotiation as well as they look for other bidders. There are so many questions and I think to again, for consumers, does the consumer experience changed? Does people's data feel protected? People have been using this platform for years. I think a lot of consumer questions still unanswered, but dan, what does it mean for shares of Tesla and of course SpaceX's own valuation, You're gonna tell me that Elon musk, a man who is very open about not getting a lot of sleep between running SpaceX and Tesla, he's now going to be in charge of twitter to how is that gonna work? Yeah. And I think he wouldn't be ceo necessarily, he would obviously own and probably have others that would run it. But look, I think right now for testing the knee jerk, there's worries about what does that mean with a selling of shares? I think shares for that as well as SpaceX will be used for collateral. I think there's worries about his balancing of time. I mean it's met its one man risk, right? I mean he's so important to Tesla the key times or SpaceX. So these are ultimately the firestorm. Now that is Elon musk and, and we'll start to see how it all plays out. But just to be clear, I mean, I don't think this is some sort of joke for 20 type of pet project. I think he really wants to own twitter. It's been our view from the beginning and I think now this is uh, this really becomes a sort of lacking horns with the twitter board. Two more quick questions here, dan. And what do we know about Dorsey's relationship? Of course the founder, one of the founders and former ceo of twitter, the relationship between Dorsey and musk? Is it a friendly one? Do you anticipate that Dorsey might support musk in this move? Yeah, I wouldn't expect them to be going to a candlelight dinner Dorsey and musk. Uh, you know, I think this is pretty contentious in terms of that view. So clearly, you know, he would not support the bid, but look, it comes down to as a public company, given the board, given the bid to do share responsibility and I think that's really gonna be, well, that's why this is a game of Thrones. This is an old style 19 eighties corporate takeover in terms of what musk is ultimately going after. Okay, one more question due to timing, we do know that investors, I assume deep pocketed investors who have the means to file this lawsuit and try to hold musk accountable saying that must did not follow sec protocol only disclosed publicly. His stake in Twitter when it was 9% plus versus the sec rule that you do have to do that via a filing open to the public after anyone were to amount of 5% stake in a company where does that go and can must be held liable for that. That needs to play out in the courts. I mean, clearly that adds to the put the firestorm here, but no doubt, I mean that's, it's more than noise and it's a frustration of ambassadors and now we have to see how that plays out. Okay, you feel good using twitter, I feel good using twitter. I think now it just comes down to if musk ultimately runs twitter. I think there could be a lot of resumes coming out of twitter headquarters. Alright dan. Ives Managing director of equity research at Wedbush dan. Always a pleasure. Thank you