The Tesla CEO has hinted at a “tender” offer in several tweets, but he still hasn’t talked about getting around the board’s poison pill.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has the backing of several big name banks in order to get enough scratch together to make a play for Twitter. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated April 20 show that Musk is “exploring whether to commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Common Stock” with his original proposed price of $54.20 a share, totalling approximately $45.5 billion. The documents state that the Twitter board has yet to respond to the proposal. It has been an open question before whether Musk would have the necessary capital to match his proposed value for the company, though the documents show he is borrowing from big name players, including Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, which has offered $25.5 billion in debt financing. Musk himself would commit $21 billion in equity financing, which will come from shares the CEO has in Tesla. CNBC has also reported that Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, Societe Generale, Mizuho Bank, and BNP Paribas are helping to finance the buyout.
