In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla Founder Elon Musk claimed he has lined up $46.5 billion in combined equity and debt financing to purchase Twitter. In fact, he is considering taking his offer directly to shareholders via a tender.
The Tesla chief has committed to putting up a total of $33.5 billion personally, with Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley agreeing to finance the other $13 billion. Musk will be financing $21 billion in equity and $12.5 billion in margin loans against his Tesla stock.
Earlier this week, Musk had said he would finance $10-$15 billion in equity. However, a profitable Q1 for Tesla meant that Musk — who doesn’t draw a regular salary but is paid bonuses for achieving certain targets — would make payouts of around $23 billion from the electric vehicle manufacturer.
On Twitter, Musk has doubled down on the sweeping changes he proposed to bring the social media platform, claiming if his bid is successful, he “will defeat the spam bots or die trying!”
Additionally, he claimed Twitter would verify all human users — a move that has been resisted by the organisation so far.
In recent years, one of Twitter’s major problems has been the growth of ‘bots’, or unverified accounts that constantly spam the micro-blogging site.
Recently, Indian social media app Koo announced it would allow mass self-verification, alongside the publication of its algorithm. Another of Musk’s aims for Twitter is an open-source algorithm that can be verified by all users.
Acknowledging Musk’s bid, a Twitter spokesperson said,
“As previously announced and communicated to Mr Musk directly, the [Twitter] board is committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive, and deliberate review to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders.”
