Unstoppable Musk: Elon Locks Twitter Execs Down in Sunday Meeting That Can Clear Way for Takeover
Elon Musk is now closer than ever to owning the social media giant Twitter, according to recent reporting from sources with insider knowledge.
While Twitter refused to hear out Musk’s initial offer, apparently the company is warming up to his proposition.
After the self-made billionaire announced he had acquired $46.5 billion in financing for his bid for the company last week, Twitter decided to take “a fresh look at the offer” and is now “more likely than before to seek to negotiate,” multiple sources told the Wall Street Journal.
“Twitter is still working on an all-important estimate of its own value, which would need to come in close to Mr. Musk’s offer, and it could also insist on sweeteners such as Mr. Musk agreeing to cover breakup protections should the deal fall apart,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
The two sides will meet to discuss Musk’s current proposal on Sunday, the report claims.
Also, according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, whether or not the deal goes through, Musk will remain a key part of the company’s dealings going forward.
On Friday, Musk met privately with “several” shareholders of the company.
During this meeting, Musk “pledged to solve the free-speech issues he sees as plaguing the platform … whether his bid succeeds or not,” the sources said.
Aron Solomon, the chief legal analyst for Esquire Digital, has correctly predicted Musk’s moves thus far in a series of interviews with The Western Journal.
Three days before Musk announced his initial offer to buy up 100 percent of the company’s shares, Solomon predicted the billionaire would do so “within days.”
At the time, Solomon also predicted this process would not be drawn out over a long period of time. In his view, Musk needed to act within days or weeks in order to leverage the news cycle to his advantage.
“Like Elon Musk or not, one thing that we know is that he’s able to take things from zero to 60 very quickly, whether it’s SpaceX or Tesla or anything that he wants to do,” Solomon told The Western Journal.
News that Twitter will be willing to “negotiate,” may seem like a moot point to some, given that Musk previously stated his initial offer would also be his final offer.
However, in a more recent interview with The Western Journal, Solomon posited that Musk was planning all along to up his offer.
In an email to The Western Journal on Tuesday, Solomon wrote that the plan will likely involve Musk upping his offer to investors from $54.20 per share — a 54 percent premium over the share price the day before Musk began investing in the company — to $60-$61 per share.
In the days since his initial offer, the billionaire has become increasingly, publicly antagonistic towards Twitter board members, which Solomon claims has given Musk a huge advantage.
“This is a key. Elon Musk as the white knight. Between this positioning and compelling second offer, it might be too much to turn down,” Solomon wrote in the email.
“Essentially, if Elon Musk wants Twitter badly enough it’s going to be extremely hard to stop him from acquiring it.”
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