Elon Musk, shortly after making his $43 billion offer to take Twitter private, admitted that he might not be able to pull together the cash to make it happen. Well, now it appears that he has put together the funds necessary for the buyout.
According to Reuters, Musk has scraped together enough of his own money and found various other parties willing to front more funds to make the bid happen.
He will contribute $33.5 billion of his money to the venture, which Reuters reports “will include $21 billion of equity and $12.5 billion of margin loans, to finance the transaction.”
The rest of the $46.5 billion in funds will be $13 billion in debt provided by Morgan Stanley; that debt will be secured against Twitter, not Musk
And Elon is not the only wealthy American looking to buy Twitter and take it private. According to a different article by Reuters, a private equity fund called Apollo Global Management is also considering an offer, though it’s reportedly working to either work with Musk or make the buyout happen on its own. As Reuters puts it:
Apollo Global Management Inc (APO.N) is considering ways it can provide financing to any deal and is open to working with Musk or any other bidder, the sources said. Its participation would be through its credit investment platform rather than its private equity business, the sources added.
Whether Musk would work with Apollo, however, isn’t clear. If Twitter accepts his original, $43 billion bid, then he wouldn’t need to, as he’s now put together more than $46 billion in funding. If it doesn’t accept his bid, then he might move on to “Plan B,” as he wrote in his letter that $43 billion was his final offer, saying:
As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.
Perhaps that’s just bluster, but Elon seems intent on bending Twitter to his will rather than negotiating, so it seems doubtful that he’d reconsider his original language and offer an even heftier premium than what was already offered.
Further, Elon has shown a certain vision of Twitter, one that a profit-focused private equity fund might not be willing to go along with. Speaking on his offer, Elon said:
“This is not a way to make money. My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”
Perhaps Apollo would be willing to go along with that and accept his view of a Twitter that acts in a way that’s good for society rather than however is most profitable, but it seems unlikely. Then again, his statement that “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.” in the letter to the Board could have appealed to Apollo. It seems we’ll have to wait and see; with the funding secured on Elon’s part, now the ball is firmly in Twitter’s court.
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.
This story syndicated with permission from Will, Author at Trending Politics