Washington: Twitter’s board and Tesla CEO Elon Musk negotiated into the early hours Monday over his bid to buy the social media platform, ‘The New York Times’ reported. However, a section of the media also said that Twitter is poised to agree a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion (roughly Rs 327421.35 crore) in cash. It is the price the chief executive of Tesla has called his ‘best and final’ offer for the social media company, people familiar with the matter said.
Twitter may announce the $54.20 (roughly Rs. 4,050) per share deal later Monday once its board has met to recommend the transaction to Twitter shareholders, the sources said. It is always possible that the deal collapses at the last minute, the sources added.
Musk said last week that he had lined up USD 46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter. By making such a statement he put pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal.
‘The Times’, citing people with knowledge of the situation who it did not identify, said the two sides were discussing details including a timeline and fees if an agreement was signed and then fell apart. The people said the situation was fluid and fast-moving.
Also read: Twitter’s board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds: Elon Musk
Twitter had enacted an anti-takeover measure known as a poison pill that could make a takeover attempt prohibitively expensive. But the board decided to negotiate after Musk updated his proposal to show he had secured financing, according to ‘The Wall Street Journal’, which was first to report the negotiations were underway.
Musk announced April 14 an offer to buy the social media platform for USD 54.20 per share, or about USD 43 billion. However at that time he did not say how he would finance the acquisition.
Musk has said he wants to buy Twitter because he doesn’t feel it is living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.
In recent weeks, Musk has voiced a number of proposed changes for the company, from relaxing its content restrictions – such as the rules that suspended former President Donald Trump’s account – ridding the platform of its problems with fake and automated accounts.
Musk is the world’s wealthiest person, according to Forbes, with a nearly USD 279 billion fortune.