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Elon Musk Set To Take Over Twitter TODAY As Talks Reach ‘Final Stages’
Elon Musk could take over Twitter very soon on Monday morning as the board reportedly looked set to accept his offer of $54.20 per share. The talks entered a dramatic turnaround after Tesla magnate wooed shareholders with the plan to revolutionize the platform
The billionaire is closing in on seizing Twitter as talks between the Tesla magnate and the tech giant entered their final stages, reports say.
The tycoon’s representatives were said to be hammering out terms including a timeline and fees if an agreement was signed and then fell apart. The two sides were reportedly working into the early morning to finalize the fluid and fast-moving negotiations.
It comes a fortnight after Musk first sought to woo shareholders with his $54.20-per-share bid.
Representatives for Musk and Twitter met to discuss the prospective $43billion sale Sunday, with the Wall Street Journal reporting progress had been made. It is unclear whether Musk himself attended those talks.
They were two days after he met privately with actively-managed funds which hold shares in Twitter, in a bid to convince them to take up his offer. The paper said there were still issues to hash out after Sunday’s meeting, and there was no guarantee a final deal would be reached.
Those issues are said to include what penalty Musk will pay should the deal fall apart before it is completed.
Twitter rebuffed Musk’s initial April 14 offer after he did not offer information on how he would buy the network. He began to win over shareholders after revealing he had secured financing with the help of Morgan Stanley, with half his stake in Tesla offered as collateral.
Twitter’s share price rocketed since news of Musk’s purchase of 9.2 percent of the firm and initial offer, from around $39-a-share to $48.93 when the markets closed.
That is still below Musk’s offer, which he has always insisted will be the only one he makes. Musk has been meeting with Twitter shareholders in the last few days, seeking support for his bid. He said Twitter needs to be taken private to grow and become a genuine platform for free speech.
Earlier Sunday, Musk tweeted he was ‘moving on’ to his more than 83million followers, leaving many in the lurch as to what he was moving on from.
But he later clarified it was in reference to ‘making fun of [Bill] Gates for shorting Tesla while claiming to support climate change action’.
Moving on …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 24, 2022
(from making fun of Gates for shorting Tesla while claiming to support climate change action)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 24, 2022
Many Twitter shareholders reached out to the firm after Musk outlined a detailed financing plan for his bid on Thursday and urged it not to let a deal slip away.
Musk’s insistence his bid for Twitter is his ‘best and final’ has emerged as a hurdle in the deal negotiations, sources said.
But Twitter’s board has decided to engage with Musk to gather more information on his ability to complete the deal, and potentially get better terms, the sources added.
Twitter has not yet decided if it will explore a sale to put pressure on Musk to raise his bid, according to sources. The people with knowledge of the matter declined to be identified because the deal discussions are confidential.
Twitter wants to know more about any active investigations by regulators into Musk, including by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that would present a risk to the deal being completed, one of the sources said.
Securities lawyers say Musk, who settled charges he misled investors by suggesting four years ago he had secured funding to take Tesla private, may have breached SEC disclosure rules as he amassed a stake in Twitter earlier this year.
