Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the state could take action against Twitter Inc. for launching a poison pill defense to thwart Elon Musk's unsolicited bid. In his opinion, such behavior indicates a failure to fulfill fiduciary duties to the investors of the platform.

“Why would you reject the 20% premium?” DeSantis said Tuesday at a press conference, accusing the company of censorship, according to BNN Bloomberg. “I don’t think that was a rejection based on financial concerns or business judgment. They rejected it because they know they can't control Elon Musk. They know that he will not accept the narrative.”

The potential presidential candidate said he would look for ways to hold the board of directors accountable for violating their fiduciary duties. DeSantis said Florida may have the legal standing to try to take action against Twitter because the state pension owns shares. As of December 31, the Florida State Board of Governors, which administers the state pension system, owned 949,690 Twitter shares.

On April 14, it became known that Musk offered to buy the remaining shares of Twitter he does not already own at $54.20 per share. That's a 54% premium over the day before he began investing on Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before his investment was publicly announced. Musk wrote that the “offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.” He also said that he thinks Twitter has extraordinary potential and he will unlock it. Musk's main goal is to make Twitter a platform where free speech thrives.

“Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it's just really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law,” he said during his talk at Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) in Vancouver.

However, the Twitter board strongly disagrees with Musk's policy, although they choose not to directly acknowledge it, for obvious reasons. In an attempt to prevent the social network from becoming a platform where free speech thrives, Twitter’s board executed a so-called “poison pill” measure. On April 15, Twitter's board voted unanimously in favor of such a plan, valid until April 14, 2023.

© 2022, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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