On Thursday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have lined up the funding he needs for his proposed takeover of Twitter.
In his latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Musk laid out his plan for the $46.5 billion in funding that will allow him to finance the buyout offer made on April 14th.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Musk made it clear in a securities filing that he’s exploring a tender offer “to acquire shares of Twitter directly from shareholders, though he said he hasn’t decided whether to do so.”
In her recent tweet, Trish Regan broke down the funds:
“$25.5B in financing for Twitter from a group of banks led by Morgan Stanley—includes $12.5B in margin loan against his Tesla shares,” and the “rest of the money ($21 B) is coming out of his own pocket.”
“Translation: THIS GUY IS SERIOUS,” Regan added.
BREAKING: Elon Musk has
1. $25.5B in financing for Twitter from a group of banks led by Morgan Stanley—includes $12.5B in margin loan against his Tesla shares.
2. The rest of the money ($21 B) is coming out of his own pocket. (SEC filing)
Translation: THIS GUY IS SERIOUS.
— Trish Regan (@trish_regan) April 21, 2022
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Twitter’s board of directors last week adopted a “poison pill” to thwart Musk’s bid for a takeover.
Axios reported Friday that the board adopted a “limited duration shareholder rights plan,” which gives Twitter’s existing shareholders, except Musk, time to purchase additional shares at a discount.
The desired effect is to dilute Musk’s holding in the company and make the cost of a takeover higher or even prohibitive.
Earlier this week, Musk gave the world a clue into his potential move to make a tender offer, tweeting “Love me Tender.”
Love Me Tender
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2022
Corporate Finance Institute defined the tender offer aforementioned by Musk:
A tender offer is a proposal that an investor makes to the shareholders of a publicly-traded company. The offer is to tender, or sell, their shares for a specific price at a predetermined time. In some cases, the tender offer may be made by more than one person, such as a group of investors or another business. Tender offers are a commonly used means of acquisition of one company by another.
Over the weekend, Musk has spoken out about Twitter’s board since first offering to outright buy the company and take it private. He slammed Twitter’s board for “objectively” not having their “economic interests” aligned with the company’s shareholders.”
Laskie founder Chris Bakke posted:
“Elon Musk is in for a bad time. I’m not sure he’s prepared to take on a couple PhDs, a few MBAs, and a Baroness who use Twitter once a year (to reset their passwords) and collectively own 77 shares of the company.”
Daily Wire added:
A screenshot of Twitter board members’ ownership accompanied Bakke’s comments.
“Wow, with Jack departing, the Twitter board collectively owns almost no shares!” Musk reacted on Saturday. “Objectively, their economic interests are simply not aligned with shareholders.”
The same day, the tech billionaire agreed with entrepreneur David Sacks’ post claiming a rejection of Musk’s offer to outright buy Twitter would expose “corruption.”
Sources: DailyWire, The Wall Street Journal, Axios, Corporate Finance Institute
