Musk tweets 'Love Me Tender' days after Twitter takeover offer By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk's twitter account is FXTM forex fxtm official websiteseen on a smartphone in front of the Twitter logo in this photo illustration taken, April 15, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

(Reuters) -Elon Musk tweeted "Love Me Tender", an Elvis Presley song, a day after Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) adopted a "poison pill" to protect itself from the billionaire's $43 billion cash offer to buy the social media company.

After Musk's TED talk on Thursday, he hinted at the possibility of a hostile bid in which he would bypass Twitter's board and put the offer directly to its shareholders, tweeting: "It would be utterly indefensible not to put this offer to a shareholder vote".

In another tweet over the weekend, Musk, a self-described "free speech absolutist" who has been critical of Twitter and its policies, replied to a post of his from 2017 where he had asked "How much is it (Twitter)?" with an upside down smiley.

Musk, who is also the CEO of electric-vehicle maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc, has amassed a 9.1% stake in Twitter and is the social media firm's second-biggest shareholder.

Shares of Twitter rose 2.1% to $46.03 in premarket trading on Monday, still significantly below Musk's offer of $54.20 per share. The company's shares have risen roughly 15% since Musk disclosed his stake on April 4.

Thoma Bravo, a technology-focused private equity firm that had more than $103 billion in assets under management as of the end of December, informed Twitter that it was exploring the possibility of putting together a bid, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

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