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Twitter to adopt ‘poison pill’ strategy to fend off Musk’s $43B bid for platform

(Credit: Ryan Lash/TED)

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Twitter’s Board will adopt the “poison pill” strategy to fend off Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $43 billion bid to buy the social media platform.

A new statement from Twitter released just after noon on Friday in New York said the company plans to adopt “limited duration shareholder rights plan, enabling all shareholders realize full value of company.”

“Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously adopted a limited duration shareholder rights plan (the “Rights Plan”). The Board adopted the Rights Plan following an unsolicited, non-binding proposal to acquire Twitter,” the company said in a statement. “The Rights Plan does not prevent the Board from engaging with parties or accepting an acquisition proposal if the Board believes that it is in the best interests of Twitter and its shareholders.”

A “poison pill” method allows shareholders to purchase more shares at a steep discount, making the likelihood of a hostile takeover decrease. Pizza chain Papa John’s used the strategy in June 2018 to prevent ousted founder John Schnatter from gaining control of the company. Netflix also used the “poison pill” strategy in 2012.

“The Rights Plan is intended to enable all shareholders to realize the full value of their investment in Twitter,” the platform said. “The Rights Plan will reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium or without providing the Board sufficient time to make informed judgments and take actions that are in the best interests of shareholders.”

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LIVESTREAM: Tesla CEO Elon Musk to speak at TED2022

Musk, who offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share yesterday, has stood by the fact that he is not sure whether he will be able to buy the company because of the board, but that he is financially able. However, he has spoken out that, if the Board’s decision is to not allow the buyout, Twitter would be not obliging by the “fiduciary duty” it owes its shareholders. “If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty,” Musk said on Thursday. “The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale.”

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Wedbush’s Dan Ives believes Twitter’s course of action could be challenged legally. “Twitter going down the poison pill path is a predictable defensive measure for the Board to go down that will not be viewed positively by shareholders given the potential dilution and acquisition unfriendly move,” Ives said regarding the platform’s statement. “Likely challenged in Courts,” he added.

Musk said there is a “Plan B” if Twitter does not agree to the sale.

Disclosure: Joey Klender is a TSLA shareholder but is not a TWTR shareholder.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla Superchargers get massive nod in new study showing reliability

It showed Tesla Superchargers had the highest score on the 1,000-point scale with 709. They also had the highest reliability, as respondents reported they only had failed charging visits at Tesla Superchargers four percent of the time.

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tesla supercharger
Credit: Tesla

Tesla Superchargers got a massive nod in a new study that showed reliability across EV charging suppliers as electric car ownership in the United States continues to grow.

J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study aims to find the most (and least) reliable charging suppliers for EV owners.

While charging has become much more popular over the past few years, thanks to the increase in sales of electric vehicles, they are still not quite as plentiful as gas pumps for combustion engine cars.

Tesla is rolling out a new ‘Supercharger queue’ in an effort to end one issue

For this fact alone, it is imperative that EV charging companies offer a fast and reliable product that will enable confidence and peace of mind for car owners. There are quite a few companies out there, but Tesla has the most expansive charging network, not only in the U.S., but globally.

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It also has the most reliable chargers, a fact that was reiterated in this year’s J.D. Power study, which was released today.

It showed Tesla Superchargers had the highest score on the 1,000-point scale with 709. They also had the highest reliability, as respondents reported they only had failed charging visits at Tesla Superchargers four percent of the time. This beat out Electrify America at six percent, Red E at 10 percent, and EVgo and 12 percent.

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These companies were the only ones to report failed charging visits below the average.

Tesla’s 709 score on the 1,000-point scale was a 22-point drop from last year, but the study said that most of the complaints came from non-Tesla owners.

Many non-Tesla EVs now have access to the company’s Supercharging Network, and the complaints came from those drivers as they stated the process and payment were not as streamlined for them.

Brent Gruber, Executive Director of the EV practice at J.D. Power, said:

“Tesla has facilitated an experience for its owners by creating an optimal technical environment that makes the charging process very easy to use and complete payments. That process isn’t quite as streamlined for non-Tesla owners.”

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This likely came from the increased per-kilowatt-hour rate that non-Tesla owners are required to pay for having access to the company’s massive charging network.

For Tesla owners, reliability is not much of a concern. Apart from vandalism, it is pretty rare that a Supercharger stall is out of service, but, of course, it happens.

The important thing to note is that this study continues to show Tesla’s focus on keeping its charging network up and running, especially now that non-Tesla owners are able to utilize them.

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Investor's Corner

Deutsche Bank boosts Tesla (TSLA) stake by 20.8% to over $2.6 billion

The German banking giant now owns 10,076,461 Tesla shares.

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Credit: Tesla China

Deutsche Bank AG has significantly increased its position in Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), boosting its stake by 20.8% in the first quarter. 

The German banking giant now owns 10,076,461 Tesla shares, an additional 1,733,531 shares compared to the previous quarter, valued at roughly $2.61 billion. 

A top holding

As noted in a report from MarketBeat, Tesla now represents about 1% of Deutsche Bank’s overall investment portfolio, making it the firm’s 13th-largest holding. This also means that Deutsche Bank now owns 0.31% of the electric vehicle maker, at least as of its most recent SEC filing.

Tesla shares are typically volatile, and they are still being traded actively, with an average trading volume of 104.7 million. As of writing, Tesla has a market capitalization of around $1.11 trillion, making it the biggest automaker in the world by far.

Institutional investors

Deutsche Bank is not the only firm that has been increasing its stake in TSLA. Charles Schwab Investment Management raised its Tesla holdings by 4.9% in Q1, resulting in the firm now controlling over 18.17 million shares worth $4.71 billion. Evolution Wealth Advisors also increased its Tesla stake by 85.7% to over 13,000 shares.

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Overall, institutional support for Tesla remains robust, with 66.2% of the company’s stock held by hedge funds and other large investors.

TSLA stock has been seeing some momentum as of late, amidst reports that the electric vehicle maker is making progress in several of its key initiatives. Tesla’s Robotaxi business in Austin and the Bay Area is expanding well, and Elon Musk recently announced that FSD V14 should be released soon to consumers. Tesla China is also expected to launch the Model Y L, a six-seat extended wheelbase version of its best-selling car, before the end of the third quarter.

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Tesla flexes its most impressive and longest Full Self-Driving demo yet

Tesla is flexing a lengthy Full Self-Driving demo from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

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tesla full self-driving demo from san francisco to los angeles
Credit: Tesla

Tesla its most impressive and longest demo of the Full Self-Driving suite, showing a zero-intervention trek from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles. The drive required no interventions from the vehicle operator, the video showed.

It also included a quick Supercharging stop about two-thirds of the way in.

Tesla has been extremely confident in the performance of the FSD suite since releasing it years ago. However, with improvements in data comprehension and storage with its neural nets, as well as a more refined Hardware system, FSD has made significant strides over the last year.

I took a Tesla Model Y weekend-long Demo Drive – Here’s what I learned

Tesla’s prowess with driving tech has established the company as one of the industry leaders.

In a new video released on Tuesday, Tesla showed a drive of roughly 360 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a trek of about six-and-a-half hours, with zero interventions using Full Self-Driving:

Full Self-Driving is not fully autonomous, but it does operate under what Tesla calls “Supervised” conditions. This means that the driver does not have to have their hands on the wheel, nor do they have to control the accelerator or brake.

Instead, Tesla’s internal cabin-facing camera tracks eye movement to ensure the driver is ready to take over at any time and is paying attention.

The version of FSD used in this example is likely the version that the public has access to; the only differentiating factor would be the Hardware version, as older vehicles do not have HW4.

With Tesla’s Robotaxi suite in Austin operating since late June, the company stated that those vehicles are using a version that is not yet available to the public. It does not require anyone to be in the driver’s seat, which is how the vehicles are able to operate without anyone in the driver’s seat.

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