Elon Musk has upped his bid for Twitter, taking to the platform on Friday morning AEST to declare doom for all spam bots once he assumes control over the social media platform.
In his latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Tesla CEO said he has secured US$46.5 billion in financing for a possible hostile acquisition and revealed he is putting up over US$20 billion of his own money.
The funds are drawn from three sources thorough a combination of loans and equity financing.
The first is a loan from Morgan Stanley in the amount of US$13 billion, while the second is a margin loan from the investment banker and other banks worth an additional US$12.5 billion and secured against Mr Musk’s shares in Tesla.
The third, an equity commitment from Mr Musk himself for US$21 billion.
In early April, the head of Tesla announced he had purchased a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter, valued at US$2.9 billion.
Just days later he offered to purchase the entire social media platform for US$54.20 per share, putting the total cost at US$43 billion.
But met with hostilities from shareholders, Mr Musk has now intensified his vowing, proving he is quite serious when it comes to this potential acquisition.
Twitter shareholders have, however, commenced a so-called poison pill defence strategy, which could potentially block him from acquiring a stake in the business bigger than 15 per cent. Basically, the strategy allows existing investors to buy shares at a significant discount, thus diluting the holdings of a new, hostile investor.
The social media platform has responded to Mr Musk’s latest move, noting: “We 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.
“As 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.”
Maja Garaca Djurdjevic
Maja's career in journalism spans well over a decade across finance, business and politics. Now an experienced editor and reporter across all elements of the financial services sector, prior to joining Momentum Media, Maja reported for several established news outlets in Southeast Europe, scrutinising key processes in post-conflict societies.
