According to reports released on Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not done with his attempt to take Twitter private, sharing he is willing to invest up to $15 billion of his own cash to do so.
The report, released by the New York Post, shared that Musk, who currently owns a 9.1% stake in the social media company, will make his bid within 10 days, raising an additional $10 billion thanks to Morgan Stanley.
The Post reported that if Twitter accepts Musk's $43 billion bid to buy Twitter at $54.20 a share, he will need to borrow against the company and his stock and raise money from private equity investors.
Of the $43 billion, Musk is willing to put forth $10 to $15 billion of his own money, well above his approximately $3.4 billion owned shares in the company.
Two sources close to the matter shared with the Post that if the deal is met, Musk's co-investors will collectively have more equity in Twitter, while he will hold the largest amount of the stock individually.
The current plan is for co-investors to finance a hostile tender directly to Twitter shareholders in 10 days. This is done when an outside investor's ambitions to take over a company are not approved by management.
This move comes after Twitter adopted a "poison pill" last week to block Musk from tanking the stock following their decision to deny his offer to buy.
Investopedia defines a poison pill as a "defense strategy used by a target firm to prevent or discourage a potential hostile takeover by an acquiring company. Potential targets use this tactic in order to make them look less attractive to the potential acquirer."
Musk, in this case, is the acquiring company, and now if he, or any shareholder, accumulates a 15% stake in the company in a purchase not given the green light by Twitter's board of directors, other shareholders will get the chance to buy more shares at a discount.
This then dilutes the shares already owned by the acquiring company, meaning Musk's 9.1% he just purchased would not be worth as much.
Nonetheless, for Musk to move forward with his bid, he will need approval from a majority of Twitter shareholders.
As of now, there has been no agreement from Twitter to sell, but their door has been left open to negotiating with Musk or any other buyers.
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