Musk secures $46.5 bln in funding for Twitter bid

Elon Musk has secured $46.5 billion in funding to buy Twitter Inc and is considering a tender offer for its shares, a filing with US regulators showed on Thursday.

Musk himself has committed to put up $33.5 billion, which will include $21 billion of equity and $12.5 billion of margin loans, to finance the transaction.

Banks, including Morgan Stanley, have agreed to provide another $13 billion in debt secured against Twitter itself, according to the filing.

Twitter was not immediately available for comment.

Musk’s latest move comes after Twitter failed to respond to his offer and adopted of a “poison pill” to thwart the billionaire’s effort to buy the social media platform for $43billion.

Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has said the social media company needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech.

The offer from Musk, who is the second-largest shareholder of Twitter, has drawn private equity interest in participating in a deal for Twitter, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Apollo Global Management Inc is considering ways it can provide financing to any deal and is open to working with Musk or any other bidder, while Thoma Bravo has informed Twitter that it is exploring the possibility of putting together a bid.

Musk, an active Twitter user with over 80 million followers on the platform, has made of number of announcements on the platform, including some that have landed him in hot water with US regulators.

In 2018, Musk tweeted he had “funding secured” to take Tesla Inc private for $420 per share – a move that led to millions of dollars in fines and him being forced to step down as chairman of the electric car company to resolve claims from the US securities regulator that he defrauded investors.