Twitter reportedly is shifting gears in regard to Elon Musk’s multi-billion dollar offer to buy out the company after he disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing last week that he has the money to back up his offer.
“Twitter had been expected to rebuff the offer, which Mr. Musk made earlier this month without saying how he would pay for it,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “But after he disclosed last week that he now has $46.5 billion in financing, Twitter is taking a fresh look at the offer and is more likely than before to seek to negotiate.”
The report described the situation is “fast-moving” with the two sides meeting today to discuss Musk’s proposal.
The company is expected to “weigh in on the bid” later this week when it reports its first-quarter earnings.
“The potential turnabout on Twitter’s part comes after Mr. Musk met privately Friday with several shareholders of the company to extol the virtues of his proposal while repeating that the board has a ‘yes-or-no’ decision to make,” the report added. “He also pledged to solve the free-speech issues he sees as plaguing the platform and the country more broadly, whether his bid succeeds or not.”
The Wall Street Journal report comes after Musk listed in a new SEC filing that he had secured $46.5 billion from three sources to buy the company, including $13 billion from Morgan Stanley, $12.5 billion from other banks, and $21 billion from himself.
“If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” Musk tweeted after the SEC filing was disclosed. “And authenticate all real humans.”
Musk is reportedly still considering taking his bid directly to shareholders by launching a tender offer, which could come as early as this week.
