{"id":5377,"date":"2022-07-31T12:45:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T12:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obilesky.com\/2022\/31\/elon-musk-lays-out-funding-for-ambitious-twitter-takeover\/"},"modified":"2022-07-31T12:45:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T12:45:20","slug":"elon-musk-lays-out-funding-for-ambitious-twitter-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/?p=5377","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk lays out funding for ambitious Twitter takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/demo6.aiwalls.com\/imgs\/tech\/0423\/VRG_Illo_STK022_K_Radtke_Musk_Twitter_Upside_Down.02392.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>        <cite>Illustration by Kristen Radtke \/ The Verge; Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<p id=\"6ZERxB\">Elon Musk has lined up the funding he needs for his proposed takeover of Twitter. In a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Musk laid out his plan for the $46.5 billion worth of loans that will allow him to finance the buyout offer made on April 14th.<\/p>\n<p id=\"kNkNC5\">The funding is provided through two debt commitment letters from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, in which the bank commits to offering a series of loans worth $25.5 billion. The remaining $21 billion will be covered by Musk himself. <\/p>\n<p id=\"lnz5CR\">Notably, the filing does not list any equity partners to share the cash burden with Musk. The Tesla CEO already owns a 9 percent stake in Twitter, valued at roughly $2.9 billion.<\/p>\n<p><q>\u201cThe Reporting Person is seeking to negotiate a definitive agreement\u201d<\/q><\/p>\n<p id=\"grbQhJ\">The filing also makes clear that Twitter has not formally responded to Musk\u2019s offer. \u201cThe Reporting Person is seeking to negotiate a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Twitter by the Reporting Person,\u201d it reads, \u201cand is prepared to begin such negotiations immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"DMXmqN\">A spokesperson for Twitter confirmed that the company has received Musk\u2019s offer and said it would conduct a \u201ccareful, comprehensive\u201d review. <\/p>\n<p id=\"OUTQVl\">\u201cWe are in receipt of the updated, non-binding proposal from Elon Musk, which provides additional information regarding the original proposal and new information on potential financing,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cAs previously announced and communicated to Mr. Musk directly, the Board is committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"ZHRoqy\">There has been both skepticism and speculation about how Musk had planned to finance his buyout offer. Despite being Earth\u2019s richest human, with a personal fortune that <em>Bloomberg<\/em>\u2019s Billionaires Index estimated at around $249 billion, Musk isn\u2019t able to simply buy Twitter given the majority of his net worth is tied up in Tesla stock. He can borrow against this stock, but <em>The New York Times<\/em> notes there are limits on how much stock he\u2019s able to use as collateral, not to mention the fact that Tesla\u2019s fluctuating share prices might make banks wary.<\/p>\n<p id=\"uFeBfo\">Given the controversy that\u2019s often surrounded the CEO, potential investors have also reportedly been hesitant about co-investing with Musk. The <em>New York Times<\/em> also previously noted that Twitter\u2019s inconsistent financial performance over the years (not to mention controversies of its own) mean it\u2019s not an obvious contender for a traditional leveraged buyout. Musk has publicly said buying Twitter is not meant as \u201ca way to make money,\u201d which, taken at face value (never wise with Musk), undermines anyone looking to maximize returns.<\/p>\n<p id=\"v9gV8W\">Even with funding secured, taking over Twitter will not be easy. The company\u2019s board of directors recently announced measures to block Musk\u2019s hostile takeover. This maneuver, which is known in the finance world as a \u201cpoison pill,\u201d allows certain shareholders to purchase more stock in an attempt to block Musk from holding a stake of over 15 percent, <em>Reuters<\/em> previously reported.<\/p>\n<p id=\"JeP98h\">The Tesla CEO has referred to himself as a \u201cfree speech absolutist\u201d and has suggested that he believes Twitter (which he calls \u201cthe de facto town square\u201d) should loosen its moderation policies. \u201cI 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,\u201d Musk said in his initial letter announcing his intention to buy the company. \u201cTwitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"sqC7lx\"><em><strong>Update April 21st, 11:27AM ET: <\/strong><\/em><em>Updated to include a statement from Twitter. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illustration by Kristen Radtke \/ The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk has lined up the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2284],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/game8k.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}