Elon Musk Secures $46.5 Bln In Financing For Twitter Deal

(RTTNews) - Elon Musk said he is exploring whether to commence a tender offer for Twitter (TWTR), as the social media company has not responded to an earlier proposal, according to a new securities filing.

In the filing, Musk revealed that he has received commitments for $46.5 billion to help finance the potential deal. Musk secured about $25.5 billion in debt financing through Morgan Stanley Senior Funding and other firms, and he said he has committed about $21 billion in equity financing. The other participating firms are Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, Societe Generale, Mizuho Bank and BNP Paribas.

Musk has not yet determined if he will make a tender offer for Twitter or whether he will take other steps to further the proposal.

Last Wednesday, Musk offered to acquire Twitter for $54.20 per share or about $43 billion.

"Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company. As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder," Elon Musk stated.

However, on Friday, responding to Musk's $43 billion bid to buy Twitter, the social-media company's board adopted a limited duration shareholder rights plan, referred as "poison pill", to make it difficult for Musk to increase his stake beyond 15%. The billionaire founder of Tesla already owns a more-than 9% stake in Twitter.