reported sitestoplightThe news that the American billionaire, Elon Musk, is looking for new investors for Twitter in light of the flight of advertisers and looming debts.
According to those familiar with the matter, the CEO of the Musk family office is looking for new investors to buy Twitter shares at the same price at which the billionaire bought the famous social network.
Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s chief financial officer, reached out to prospective investors this week, offering Twitter shares at $54.20 a share.
Musk acquired Twitter in late October for $44 billion.
In an email to prospective investors seen by Semaphore, Birchall wrote: “We have received many investment inquiries on Twitter over the past few weeks. As a result, we are pleased to announce a follow-up offering of common stock at the original price and terms with a goal for the end of the year.” .
And the site indicates that Musk appears to be struggling financially, especially since he sold $3.6 billion worth of shares in electric car company ‘Tesla’ on Wednesday, which he likely sets to boost Twitter’s shares at order to reduce its debt.
It was the third time Musk had sold shares in Tesla since he said in April he was done selling.
Since completing the deal last October, Musk has laid off nearly half of Twitter’s workforce, including employees responsible for fighting disinformation, while an unknown number of employees have voluntarily resigned.
According to an analysis by nonprofit monitoring group Media Matters, half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have announced that they have suspended or “appear to have stopped” advertising on the platform.
The takeover deal saw a number of twists and turns that raised questions as to whether Musk would complete the deal. It all started on April 4, when Musk revealed he owns a 9.2% stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder.
The richest person in the world then agreed to join Twitter’s board, but withdrew at the last minute and has since offered to buy the company for $54.20 a share, an offer the company she wasn’t sure if it was real or just one of Musk’s jokes.
The offer turned out to be genuine and the two sides subsequently reached an agreement on the price he suggested.
In the following weeks, Musk had second thoughts. He publicly complained about Twitter, saying he believed the percentage of spam accounts was much higher than the company’s published estimate in regulatory filings of the 5% of daily active users who could see ads. His lawyers then accused Twitter of failing to comply with his requests for information on the matter.
The dispute prompted Musk to notify Twitter on July 8 that he had closed the deal. Four days later, the company sued him in Delaware, where it was incorporated, to force him out of the deal.
By then, shares of social media companies and the broader stock market had declined on fears that the Federal Reserve (the central bank of the United States) would raise interest rates to fight inflation, which would pushed the US economy into a recession.
Twitter accused Musk of regretting the deal and wanting out because he believed he agreed to pay too much.
On October 4, before the trial began later in the month, Musk offered to complete the settlement as promised, and a Delaware judge set a deadline for him to complete it and avoid trial on October 28.
