Why Elon Musk Isn’t Ready To Close A Twitter Deal Yet


Almost 40 days have passed since Elon Musk announced that its $44 billion offer to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold,” and it appears the two sides are still deadlocked. During a remote questions and answers At Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday, Musk said “there are still some unresolved issues” regarding the ongoing deal, including whether Twitter shareholders will approve it.

The comment came The same day that Twitter’s board of directors unanimously recommended that shareholders approve Musk’s offer to buy the company in an SEC filing, stating that “the merger agreement is advisable and the merger and other transactions contemplated in the merger agreement are… in the best interest of Twitter and its shareholders. ”

Musk’s weeks of stalling have led many to speculate that he is trying to get out of the deal due to the general market volatility that the Tesla CEO has repeatedly expressed concern about. “A recession is inevitable at some point,” he said attendees at the Bloomberg event. “As for whether there is a recession in the short term, I think it’s more likely than not. It’s not a certainty, but it seems more likely than not.” He also made in plans firing a portion of Tesla’s staff due to his “super bad feeling” about the economy, saying the automaker will cut about 10% of its “salaried workforce, which is really only a 3% reduction, 3.5 % in total staff and not in supermaterial”.

Meanwhile, he went on to justify the pause in the Twitter deal by stating that the board has not been forthcoming about the number of spam accounts on the platform. “You’ve probably read about the question of whether the number of spam and fake users in the system is less than 5% as Twitter claims, which I think is probably not the experience of most people when using Twitter,” he said. she. “So we are still waiting for a resolution on that matter, and that is a very important matter.” Twitter has worked to resolve this dispute by offering Musk a “fire hose” of internal data to analyze, according to a Washington Post report earlier this month. This attempt at transparency appears to be a direct response to Musk’s claim that the company breached its end of the merger agreement by “actively resisting and thwarting” his efforts to obtain information about the composition of the site’s user base. Earlier this month, a Twitter spokesperson said that the company is cooperating with Musk’s data requests and plans to “close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”

Rounding out the three issues that “need to be resolved” before the Twitter purchase can be completed is the question of whether debt financing for the deal “will come together,” Musk said at the forum. (He plans to pay for the deal using $33.5 billion in personal capital and $13 billion in debt financing from various banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Barclays.) He also described his grand vision for the site, expressing hope that “80% of North America and maybe half the world” will eventually join Twitter. “My aspiration for Twitter, or for the digital town square in general, would be for it to be as inclusive as possible, in the broadest sense of the word,” he said. explained. “That means it has to be something that draws people in. Obviously it can’t be a place where they feel uncomfortable or harassed, or they just won’t use it.”

Last week, Musk reiterated his desire to proceed with the acquisition during his first meeting with Twitter employees. Still, the company is currently trading at $38.63, a far cry from Musk’s $54.20 per share offer price and a sign of continued market skepticism about the viability of the deal.

Politics also surfaced on Tuesday, as Musk, who last week voted by a Republican for the first time and said that was leaning towards rum desantis in 2024, should the governor of Florida run for president, it was I ask if you would consider voting for donald trump if I entered the race. “I think I’m undecided right now about that choice,” Musk said.



Reference-www.vanityfair.com

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