Can I Buy Twitter (TWTR) Stocks & Shares? (2024)

On Friday 28 October, the long-running and contentious acquisition of social media platform Twitter by Elon Musk was completed at the agreed price of just over £38 billion ($44 billion).

Mr Musk, who yesterday posted a tweet saying “the bird is freed” in reference to his ownership of the micro-blogging site, will own all the shares in the site once payments to shareholders are finalised.

Trading in the shares on the New York Stock Exchange has been suspended, meaning no new purchases of the stock can be made.

Financial commentators say it is likely to be days and possibly weeks before shareholders receive their money. They will be paid £46.70 ($54.20) for each share they held up to the time of acquisition.

Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “For UK investors, the cash proceeds will be converted from US dollars into sterling, subject to the prevailing exchange rate at the time and any standard currency conversion fees. We don’t yet know what the prevailing exchange rate will be.”

The decision by Mr Musk to take Twitter private means the company will de-list from the stock market, having been listed on the New York Stock Exchange while a public company.

Mr Musk is expected to change the way Twitter functions. This may include altering the site’s algorithm, reducing moderation, introducing a user edit facility, and lifting bans on figures excluded by the previous management.

Further developments could see Twitter’s scope expanded so that the app becomes a multi-purpose life management tool with a range of administrative functions.

At the close of trading on Thursday, Twitter shares were priced at just over £46 ($53). The New York Stock Exchange issued a noticesaying the suspension of trading in the shares was “Effective before the Open” of the market at 9.30am in the US (2.30pm in the UK).

UPDATE 10 OCTOBER 2022: Last week, Elon Musk announced that he was willing to buy Twitter for the original agreed price of $54.20 per share, but questions remain over his proposed takeover of the tech giant.

The row between Mr Musk and Twitter was due to culminate in a court battle on 17 October after Mr Musk put the takeover on ice in May. The sticking point centred on Mr Musk’s concerns over the stated number of Twitter users being bloated by fake and spam accounts, known as ‘bots’.

Court proceedings have now been suspended until 28 October to allow Mr Musk time to complete the deal. Twitter is opposing this delay, voicing concerns over Mr Musk’s ability to raise the debt financing.

Although a handful of Wall Street banks had signed up to provide $12.5 billion of financing for the $44 billion transaction, the rise in interest rates and fears of a recession may make this a more challenging prospect.

Twitter shares have fluctuated between $31 and $68 in the past 12 months. They rose from $43 to $52 on Mr Musk’s announcement last week, but have subsequently fallen back to around $49 per share, indicating the level of uncertainty around the deal managing to get over the line.

UPDATE 13 JULY 2022: Elon Musk last week wrote to Twitter to say he no longer wants to buy the social media platform. Twitter has now launched legal action to close the deal on the original terms. Twitter stock was trading 5% down after the news broke, at around $35 (£29) a share.

UPDATE 26 April 2022: Twitter is dominating business and social media headlines following the news that Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire owner of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, has succeeded in persuading the platform’s Board to accept his offer to buy the company for around $44 billion (£33 billion).

That values the shares, which are quoted on the New York Stock Exchange, at $54.20 each (around £41). The Board will now recommend the offer to the company’s shareholders.

In trading today (Tuesday), Twitter’s shares dipped below $50 as investors digested the news of the accepted offer from Mr Musk, which has received mixed reactions, particularly on Twitter itself. In the past 52 weeks, the shares have been as low as $31 and as high as $73.

While the shares remain substantially below the $54.20 level of Mr Musk’s offer, there is a potential for anyone buying Twitter stock at today’s price to make a profit if the deal is green-lighted by shareholders.

Of course, if someone were to buy at today’s price, the deal did not go through and the price then fell below where it currently stands, they would be left with a trading loss if they sold out.

You should be able to buy US shares through most brokerage accounts. Buying shares in US dollars incurs a foreign exchange fee (typically around 1%) unless you fund the purchase from a US dollar account.

Most brokerages also charge a slightly higher transaction fee for buying US, rather than UK, shares although it’s worth comparing the fees charged by different brokers if you plan to trade US shares regularly.

You will be asked to complete a W-8BEN form (valid for three years) which allows you to benefit from a reduction in withholding tax for qualifying US dividends and interest from 30% to 15%. Holding US shares also carries exposure to foreign exchange risk. If the pound strengthens against the dollar, your shares will be worth less in sterling (and vice versa).

First, and most importantly, there are no guarantees when it comes to share prices. They can and often do fluctuate minute by minute, gains can quickly become losses, and in the worst case scenario, you can lose all of your investment.

In other words, don’t buy Twitter or any other shares thinking you are on to a sure-fire winner. There is always risk involved, and you should be fully aware that you could make irretrievable losses.

However, if you understand and accept the risks, you could view share investment as a potential way to make more of a profit on your capital than you would be putting your cash on deposit.

Here are a few golden rules:

• Know your limits: when buying shares, only invest what you can afford to lose
• Stay secure: build a solid financial base for your finances before venturing into investment – at the very least, have three months’ worth of normal outgoings as a cash reserve in a rainy day fund
• Avoid ‘leverage’: this is where you borrow to invest. This take the basic risk of investment and makes it toxic since there’s a danger of losing someone else’s money, not just your own
• Maximise efficiency: see if you can house any shares you buy in a tax-efficient individual savings account
• Minimise charges: as you’ll have seen from the articles above, the charges levied by investment platforms and apps can eat into the value of your holdings, so scrutinise these with care
• Spread your bets: experienced investors reduce their risk profiles by investing across a range of companies, or by buying funds which themselves have exposure to a range of investments.
• Do your research: knowing when to sell is as important as knowing when to buy, so keep an eye on your portfolio to see if action is required – your platform or app should be able to help in this regard
• Think long term: an opportunity such as that presented by Twitter is eye-catching, but shares investment should be regarded as a long-term – ideally, five-year – proposition to allow time for sustained market growth.