Twitter in advanced takeover talks with Elon Musk

Twitter is nearing a deal to sell the micro-blogging company to Elon Musk, two people with knowledge of the situation said, a move that would unite the world’s richest man with the influential social networking service.

Twitter’s board continued negotiation with Musk into the early hours of Monday over his unsolicited bid to buy the company, after he began lining up $46.5 billion in financing for the offer last week.

The York Times stated this in a report quoting some insiders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose confidential information.

The two sides were discussing details including a timeline to close any potential deal and any fees that would be paid if an agreement were signed and then fell apart, they said.

The discussions followed a Twitter board meeting on Sunday morning to discuss Musk’s offer, the people said.

Obtaining commitments for the financing was a turning point for how the board viewed Musk’s bid of $54.20 a share, enabling the company’s 11 board members to seriously consider his offer, the people said.

An agreement is not yet final but what had initially seemed to be a highly improbable deal appeared to be nearing an endgame.

The situation involving Twitter and Musk remains fluid and fast-moving, the people with knowledge of the situation said.

Musk, who has more than 83 million followers on Twitter and began amassing shares in the company earlier this year, declared his intent to buy the company on April 14 and take it private.

But his proposal was quickly dismissed by Wall Street because it was unclear if he could come up with the money to do the deal.

Twitter also adopted a “poison pill,” a defensive maneuver that would prevent Musk from accumulating more of the company’s stock.

Musk updated his proposal last week, putting pressure on Twitter to more seriously consider his bid.

In a securities filing that was made public on Thursday, he detailed how he had put together financing from the investment bank Morgan Stanley and a group of other lenders, which were offering $13 billion in debt financing, plus another $12.5 billion in loans against his stock in Tesla, the electric carmaker that he runs. He was expected to add about $21 billion in equity financing.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment. In previous public statements, the company had said its board was “continuing to conduct a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders.”

Musk did not respond to a request for comment either. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported Twitter’s increased receptivity to Musk’s bid.

Wall Street was likely to view the openness of Twitter’s board to Musk’s bid as “the beginning of the end for Twitter as a public company with Musk likely now on a path to acquire the company unless a second bidder comes into the mix,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note on Sunday.