Now he’s got cash. Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk has just made a huge new move to acquire Twitter, the social media giant.
Last week, Musk announced plans to offer $43 billion to buy the platform, but the Twitter board of directors kept silent on the deal and reportedly did not bring it to its shareholders. The state of Florida, a shareholder, may sue Twitter’s board over its failure to disclose the deal to shareholders.
But now Musk may have made Twitter an offer the board can’t refuse.
JUST IN: Elon Musk has secured a $46.5 billion financing commitment to acquire Twitter Inc and is considering starting a tender offer for its outstanding shares, a filing with U.S. regulators showed.
— Shaun Kraisman (@ShaunKraisman) April 21, 2022
In a Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Musk reports that he’ll put up $21 billion of his own money and has secured outside financing to cover the rest of a sweetened deal to buy Twitter. All told, Musk is offering $46.5 billion in a potential tender offer.
Things just got real.
Given the lack of response by Twitter, the Reporting Person [Musk] is exploring whether to commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Common Stock (together with the associated rights issued pursuant to the Rights Agreement (the “Rights” and, together with the Common Stock, the “Shares”)) that are issued and outstanding (and not held by the Reporting Person) at a price of $54.20 per share, net to the seller in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes, subject to certain conditions (the “Potential Offer”), but has not determined whether to do so at this time.
Musk makes clear that he hasn’t started a tender offer yet.
CNBC reports that a Twitter spokesperson said the social media company “previously announced and communicated to Mr. Musk directly, the Board is committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders,” which may explain why Twitter has made no public statements.
Morgan Stanley Senior Funding will finance the rest with the help of “Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, Societe Generale, Mizuho Bank and BNP Paribas.”
There’s some doubt as to whether Musk can still acquire the company, considering that the board has deployed a poison pill to make the acquisition untenable.
Musk says he’ll liberate speech on Twitter, which has censored and kicked off users with whom the Silicon Valley crowd politically disagrees — including former president Donald Trump. The social site also censored stories its officials believed hurt Joe Biden in the last election.
Twitter has sullied its own reputation and caused conservatives to flee the site and start their own versions where there are more liberal speech policies.
The Left has freaked out over the prospect of Musk buying Twitter and allowing people of differing views to share the platform.
They can’t handle not being in charge of the narrative. Boohoo.
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