Musk confirms $46.5 bn lined up, considers tender offer for Twitter

Elon Musk said Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions are providing about $25.5 billion in debt financing for his bid to buy Twitter as he looks to pile pressure on the company to engage with his offer.
 
To finance the purchase, “entities related” to Musk have received letters committing to provide funding of about $46.5 billion, according to a securities filing on Thursday. But almost half of that — $21 billion — comes from the billionaire’s own pocket through equity financing, and there were no details on where Musk is getting the money.
 
It’s unclear whether Musk, who heads Tesla and SpaceEx, would consider selling part of his stake in one of his prized companies to acquire Twitter. Musk currently has about $3 billion in cash or other somewhat liquid assets after spending $2.6 billion buying a 9.1 per cent stake in Twitter in recent months, according to calculations.

 

Musk said he’s considering the tender offer because he hasn’t heard back from Twitter on his bid, announced last week, to buy the company for $54.20 a share. He’s seeking to negotiate a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Twitter and is prepared to begin such negotiations immediately, according to the filing on Thursday.
 
A tender offer often comes with a requirement that a certain percentage of shareholders — often 50 per cent — give up their shares for sale in order for the proposal to succeed. Twitter has some large institutional investors that own big stakes. Musk’s offer would have a chance of succeeding if he could persuade enough of them to get behind it.