Twitter reportedly close to a deal with Elon Musk

The Twitter board is close to an agreement with Elon Musk on the Tesla CEO’s offer to buy the social platform and make it private.

Reuters and the New York Times reported that the board could announce a deal as early as Monday accepting Musk’s initial offer to buy Twitter for $ 54.20 a share, or about $ 43 billion.

Twitter’s board of directors and Tesla CEO Elon Musk negotiated a bid to buy the social media platform until early Monday, the Times reported.

Musk revealed last week that he did lined up $ 46.5 billion in funding buy Twitter, pressuring the company’s board of directors to negotiate a deal.

Citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation, the Times and Reuters said the two sides were discussing details surrounding the deal, including possible tariffs in case an agreement is signed and then undone.

Wall Street analysts believe a deal will be announced before Twitter reports its first-quarter financial results on Thursday.

“Twitter reports on earnings later this week, which will probably not be rainbows and smiles, so it will put more pressure on the company around this high-stakes poker game with Musk’s bid that is approaching, ”Wedbush Securities analysts Daniel Ives and John Katsingris said in a research note. .

No bidding war will come

After Musk revealed earlier this month that he had bought a stake in Twitter and proposed to buy the company directly, the company’s board adopted a anti-opa measure known as a poison pill designed to avoid a hostile offer. But the board decided to negotiate after Musk updated his proposal to show he had secured funding, according to The Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report that the latest negotiations were underway.

Twitter may also find it difficult to attract any rival bidders, especially given the growing scrutiny of social media companies and their content moderation practices, which Musk has pledged not to emphasize.

“The Twitter board couldn’t find a white knight, and with Musk’s detailed funding, the clock has essentially rung at midnight for the board, so negotiations have begun to reach an agreement,” Ives said. .

Musk’s bid, announced on April 14, values ​​the platform at $ 54.20 per share, or about $ 43 billion. Last week, Musk said in documents filed with U.S. securities regulators that the money would come from Morgan Stanley and other banks, some of them insured for their huge stake in the electric car maker.

Twitter has not commented.

Less moderation, less fakes

Musk has said he wants to buy Twitter because he believes the company does not live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

In recent weeks, he has voiced a number of proposed changes to the social media site, from easing its content restrictions, such as rules that suspended former President Donald Trump’s account, to undoing the platform. of your problems with fake and automated accounts.

Musk is the richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a fortune of almost $ 279 billion. But much of his money is tied to Tesla shares: he owns about 17 percent of the company, according to FactSet, which is valued at more than $ 1 trillion. He also owns SpaceX, his private space company. It is unclear how much cash Musk has.

CBS News’s Irina Ivanova contributed to the report.

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