Elon Musk apparently wants to take over the short message service Twitter at all costs. After the Tesla CEO had already made an initial offer, he is now apparently making improvements. And in the form of concrete financing.
Elon Musk wants to take over Twitter and, according to his own statements, subsequently take it off the stock exchange. The Twitter board has neither agreed to nor rejected an initial offer of $41.4 billion. Rather, the company is playing for time and recently responded with a so-called “poison pill” to make the takeover more difficult for Musk.
However, the Tesla CEO had also announced that he had a Plan B in case Twitter rejected his takeover offer. Musk also said that his offer was his “best and final offer” and that he would reconsider his position as a shareholder if it was not accepted.
Plan B? Elon Musk founds consortium and wants to increase Twitter’s offer
However, it is now likely to become clear what he might have meant by his Plan B. As the Reuters news agency reports, Elon Musk has secured financing of 46.5 billion US dollars to increase his offer.
This is according to a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the letter, Musk has committed to raising $33.5 billion himself. 21 billion U.S. dollars is to be his equity share. A further 12.5 billion is to come from margin loans.
New takeover bid: Elon Musk wants to take over shares directly
In addition, several banks, including the US investment banking and securities trading firm Morgan Stanley, have agreed to provide a further 13 billion US dollars.
According to the documents, these are supposed to be secured by Twitter itself. However, the company has not yet issued a statement. The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also indicates that Musk now apparently wants to acquire some or all of the shares directly from shareholders due to a lack of response from Twitter’s board.
However, the Tesla CEO had not yet made a concrete decision on whether to pursue such a course or take other steps. The fact is, however, that the planned financing exceeds Musk’s previous offer.
