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REPORT: Twitter Closes In On Deal To Sell Itself To Elon Musk

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Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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Twitter is reportedly closing in on a deal to sell itself to Tesla CEO Elon Musk after weeks of publicly battling Musk over his initial offer.

An agreement could be reached as soon as Monday as the board negotiates with Musk over his $46.5 billion offer to buy the social media platform, The New York Times (NYT) reported, citing unnamed sources. The board reportedly met Sunday to discuss the offer. The deal could possibly fall through, the NYT reported.

The social media platform has been unable to nab a ‘go-shop’ provision in its potential agreement with Musk that would allow Twitter to solicit other offers even after the deal is signed, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources. Twitter, however, could still accept a different offer so long as they pay Musk a break-up fee, Reuters reported.

Twitter shares jumped 4.5% in pre-market trading Monday, according to Reuters. (RELATED: Musk Has Some Fighting Words For Twitter Board Members)

Musk originally offered $43 billion to buy Twitter but recently announced he secured $46.5 billion to pay for his offer, totaling $54.20 per share, according to Securities and Exchanges (SEC) filings released on April 20. Musk would finance the offer with the help of several banks who will provide him with debt to finance the deal, the SEC filings revealed. Musk would provide his own $21 billion in cash while receiving an additional $26 billion in debt from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Barclays, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Twitter’s board has pushed back against the bid from Musk, adopting a “poison pill” which is a shareholder rights plan limiting a single shareholder from purchasing too many shares and forcing the company into a sale. Musk responded to the measure by tweeting that should the “Twitter board take[s] actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty.”

“The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale,” Musk said.