JUST IN: Twitter Taking ‘Fresh Look’ at Elon Musk Offer, Could Meet As Soon As Today – Report
Hannibal Hanschke, Getty
Twitter, Inc. may be more receptive to Elon Musk after he put together the financing for a $43 billion tender offer, and negotiations may take place on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported a short time ago.
The $46.5 billion for Musk’s massive tender offer was put together just days ago after the Twitter board went for a “poison pill” in their effort to block his initial bid to buy the company.
“Twitter is taking a fresh look at the offer and is more likely than before to seek to negotiate, people familiar with the matter said,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. “The situation is fast-moving and it is still far from guaranteed Twitter will do so.”
The company has to complete its valuation, and may wait until Thursday when the first quarter earnings come out before giving a response, but negotiations on how to move forward could take place between now and then.
“The two sides are meeting Sunday to discuss Mr. Musk’s proposal,” the Journal reports, citing those same unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Earlier on Sunday, Musk cryptically tweeted “moving on,” fueling speculation that he was referring to backing off the offer to buy Twitter.
Since the financing was put in place, Musk met privately with some of the shareholders of the company, which may also be a factor in the new receptiveness.
Twitter’s response won’t necessarily be black-and-white, and could leave the door open for inviting other bidders or negotiating with Mr. Musk on terms other than price. Mr. Musk reiterated to Twitter’s chairman Bret Taylor in recent days that he won’t budge from his offer of $54.20-a-share, the people said.
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, according to people familiar with the matter. 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, they said.
Moving on …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 24, 2022
However, after a few hours of the tweet bonanza, he replied to his thread to indicate he was referring to his trolling of Bill Gates for “shorting Tesla while claiming to support climate change action.”
(from making fun of Gates for shorting Tesla while claiming to support climate change action)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 24, 2022
This is a developing story and may be updated.
