Elon Musk Just Put Up Even More Of His Money To Fund Twitter Takeover
Elon Musk is apparently throwing more money into his $44 billion Twitter purchase, which might be confusing considering that just last week he was talking about putting the purchase on hold due to allegedly being "misled" about the number of spam-bot accounts on the social media service. It's worth noting that about 23% of Elon Musk's followers are spam accounts, according to an audit from SparkToro that was published on May 15.
In a turn of events, Insider reported in the morning hours of May 26 that Twitter stock has sharply risen by 4.5% following a move made by Elon Musk to push $6.25 billion of his own funds into the tentative Twitter deal. The move, which brings Musk's personal equity in the purchase up to $33.5 billion from $27.25 billion, is visible in a public SEC filing. Given that Tesla stocks have taken a nosedive recently, it does make sense that Elon Musk would pull away from his dependency on Tesla stock value to pay for the ongoing Twitter deal. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Musk has fully committed to making the purchase, especially since he has already given one major excuse to pull away from the deal thus far, one that critics say has been rooted in triviality. This is in reference to his earlier comments about spambots on the social media service.
Elon Musk may still pull away from the Twitter buy
Musk has at least one reason to pull away from the Twitter purchase: the company's shareholders are already beginning to push back against him. The board opted against re-electing longtime Musk supporter Egon Durban, who is the co-CEO of Silver Lake, a private equity firm that Musk could potentially have planned to tap for financial assistance in his campaign to build equity towards the Twitter buy.
Noted by Insider, the deal can be terminated at any point before it becomes finalized in October, for a meager $1 billion. Twitter has asserted that the deal will indeed go through at the full price agreed upon by both parties — $54.20 per share — regardless of any reasoning put up by Elon Musk to back away from the deal, or to drive the price down. Regardless, the Twitter purchase debacle hasn't been good for Elon Musk's net worth, which is still heavily tied into Tesla stock prices.