Elon Musk secures US$46.5B for Twitter takeover bid – National

Elon Musk on Thursday said he has lined up US$46.5 billion in debt and equity financing to buy social network company Twitter Inc. and is considering taking his offer directly to shareholders, a filing with U.S. regulators showed.

Musk himself has committed to put up US$33.5 billion, which will include US$21 billion of equity and US$12.5 billion of margin loans against some of his Tesla Inc. shares to finance the transaction. Musk is the chief executive officer of automotive company Tesla.

Musk, the world’s richest person according to a tally by Forbes, on April 14 presented a “best and final” cash offer of US$43 billion to Twitter’s board of directors.

Musk, Twitter’s second-largest shareholder with a 9.1 per cent stake, has said that he could make big changes at the micro-blogging company, where he has a following of more than 80 million users.

Shares of Twitter were up less than one per cent on news of the funding, indicating that the market is still skeptical about the deal, given that Twitter is expected to reject him on price.

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2:05#HostileTakeover: Billionaire Elon Musk wants to buy and change Twitter

Banks, including Morgan Stanley, have agreed to provide another US$13 billion in debt secured against Twitter itself, according to the filing.

Twitter was not immediately available for comment.

Musk’s latest move comes after Twitter failed to respond to his offer and adopted a “poison pill” to thwart the billionaire’s effort to buy the social media platform.

Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has said that the social media company needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech.

The offer from Musk has drawn private equity interest in participating in a deal for Twitter, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Apollo Global Management Inc. is considering ways it can provide financing to any deal and is open to working with Musk or any other bidder, while Thoma Bravo has informed Twitter that it is exploring the possibility of putting together a bid.

Musk has made of number of announcements on the platform, including some that have landed him in hot water with U.S. regulators.

In 2018, Musk tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private for US$420 per share – a move that led to millions of dollars in fines and him being forced to step down as chairman of the electric car company to resolve claims from the U.S. securities regulator that he defrauded investors.