Elon Musk Ups Cash Portion of Twitter Deal, Shares Jump

By Washington Post
Posted on 05/25/22 | News Source: Washington Post

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk increased the amount of cash he is willing to commit to buying Twitter and said he was still looking for more outside investors to help him with the deal, according to a financial filing Wednesday.

Musk is now committed to paying $33.5 billion in cash for Twitter, up from the $27.3 billion he had previously committed to. That lowers the amount of debt he will have to take on from banks to get to the $44 billion he has agreed to pay for the social media company.

Twitter shares shot up 7% in aftermarket trading, suggesting Wall Street now believes the deal is more likely to happen, though the stock is still trading around $40, below the $54.20 a share Musk has agreed to pay.

Musk is working to assemble outside investors to help him finance the deal and has already gotten commitments from a range of hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds and venture capital firms. At the same time, Musk has been calling into question whether the deal will even go through, saying it is “on hold” and demanding more information from the company on how many of its 230 million users are fake “bot” accounts.

A global sell-off in tech stocks has put pressure on Musk to lower the price he has to pay for Twitter. His own wealth has declined dramatically as shares in Tesla fell nearly 25% over the past month. The debt he plans to use to buy Twitter is secured against his Tesla shares. Poor financial results from Twitter and other social media companies mean investors no longer think Twitter is worth what it was when Musk began buying shares earlier this year.

At the same time, Twitter’s board has said it plans to “enforce” the terms of the deal that Musk has already signed. Financial analysts have speculated that Musk’s complaints about bots are part of a plan to put pressure on Twitter to accede to a lower sales price to close the deal.