The Twitter board met on Sunday, April 24, to discuss Elon Musk’s $46.5 billion offer for the social media platform. The Board’s reported willingness to seriously consider the Tesla CEOs offer reveals that Musk may have a shot at taking Twitter private.
The Twitter Board plans to meet with Musk’s side later on Sunday to discuss details about a potential deal, two people familiar with the matter told the The New York Times. The points to be addressed include the timeline of a deal. Discussions between Musk and the Twitter board include fees that may be paid if they accept Elon Musk’s agreement and negotiations fall apart.
Last week, an SEC filing revealed that Musk received commitments for a $46.5 billion acquisition of Twitter. The filing suggested that Musk was exploring a tender offer to purchase Twitter stock directly from shareholders. Musk stated that the new strategy was adopted because the Twitter Board had not responded to his initial bid.
“Twitter has not responded to the Proposal. Given the lack of response by Twitter, the Reporting Person 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,” said the 13D SEC filing.
The filling revealed that Musk gathered financing from Morgan Stanley and other lenders who offered $13 billion in debt financing. Included in the tender offer is another $12.5 billion in loans against Musk’s Tesla stocks. Elon Musk is also expected to add about $21 billion in equity financing.
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