Analysis by Ian King, business leader
There must be a good chance Mr. Musk will be able to gain control.
Not only does it offer a significant premium to the stock price of Twitter before it starts investing, there is no competitive bidding situation here without other potential buyers on the horizon.
In addition, with his “take it or leave it” approach, Mr. Musk has Twitter, in slang, in a “bear hug”. The Twitter board knows that if he withdraws, the stock price will fall.
And many investors will grab an attractive offer.
The question is, if Mr Musk succeeds, what changes will these include?
In the recent past, for example, he has considered issuing a “checkmark” for first-class subscribers.
He may also seek to move from an advertising-based model to turn Twitter into a subscription-funded business.
Another question is whether Mr. Musk plans to try to buy Twitter directly.
With an estimated net worth of $ 265 billion, he can afford, in theory, except that much of that wealth is tied to shares in Tesla.
So it may be that he will borrow against these shares, using them as collateral, although as an alternative he could seek the support of a private investment company.
The big question most Twitter users will have is whether the platform will change in character after the takeover.
The management of Twitter – both Mr. Agraval and former co-founder Jack Dorsey – have tried hard, not always successfully, to turn Twitter into a platform where discourse is reasonably civic.
This includes the use of moderation policies, which many people, probably including Mr Musk himself, find too heavy.
So some will fear that the takeover could lead to more trolling and possibly lifting the ban on former US President Donald Trump.
These are all questions to which the answer will not be available immediately.
And this lack of clarity will leave many users – and especially Twitter employees – quite nervous.
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