Report: Twitter, Musk Deal Could Be Reached Early This Week Musk had previously offered to purchase the social media company for around $43 billion.
By Emily Rella Edited by Amanda Breen
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Update 4/25: Elon Musk has officially purchased Twitter, mulitple sources report.
"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Musk procclaimed in a statement. "I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022 (pending approval of Twitter stockholders and other regulatory measures) and was unanimously approced by Twitter's Board of Directors.
Musk purchased the company for $54.20 per share in cash, valued at an estimated $44 billion total. Twitter, under Musk, will now become a privately held company once the deal reaches completion.
Stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each of their shares upon closing.
"Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world," said Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. "Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important."
This is a developing story.
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It looks like Elon Musk's relentlessness in his battle against Twitter might be paying off after all as the company is reportedly considering his offer to purchase the company for nearly $43 billion.
Twitter stocks surged to 3% in premarket on Monday upon reports that the company is in the talking stages of accepting the billionaire's offer after a new SEC filing revealed that Musk is considering a tender offer to purchase a vast amount of Twitter shares directly from stockholders.
The filing from late last week shows that he has confirmed around $46 billion to finance the offer, which includes $25.5 billion in debt financing and $21 billion in equity financing by major banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Barclays.
The tender offer is dicey for Musk, however, due to the "poison pill" implemented on behalf of Twitter to protect shareholders that stops Musk from owning over 15% of the total company.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk's deal with Twitter could be announced as soon as Monday though there is no guarantee that a deal will be struck.
Musk had previously said in a letter via a separate SEC filing directed to Twitter board chairman Brett Taylor that his offer to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share was his "best and final" and explained that he would "reconsider" his shareholder position should his offer not be accepted, something that would be detrimental to the company's valuation.
"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy," Musk wrote to Taylor. "However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company."
Related: Elon Musk Will No Longer Join Twitter Board
The price of $54.20 is over 50% in value from what it was the day prior to Musk purchasing stock, according to the billionaire himself. Shares were trading over $51 in premarket Monday.
Musk currently owns about 9% of Twitter's shares.
Multiple outlets confirmed that the Twitter Board met on Sunday to discuss Musk's musings that he would purchase the rest of the company stock in a tender deal, while WSJ also noted that Musk met personally with several big-time shareholders on Friday to further explain his vision and plan.
Neither Musk nor Board members have publicly confirmed either.
Musk himself was elected to Twitter's Board and was expected to begin his position on April 9 before Twitter's CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Musk would no longer be joining the Board.
Twitter is expected to report on its Q1 2022 earnings this Thursday.
Related: Tesla Has Reportedly Been Using Bots Since 2013 to Manipulate Stock Prices
