Twitter shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, the New York Stock Exchange’s website showed, as billionaire Elon Musk faces a court-ordered October 28 deadline to close his $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,62,100 crore) deal for the social media platform. Musk, the world’s richest person, visited Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday and hinted he was the company’s top boss after updating his profile bio to “Chief Twit”. The deal’s completion would mark an end to a lawsuit by Twitter, which, along with investors, now expects the deal to be completed on its original terms of $54.20 (roughly Rs. 4,500) per share.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that equity investors, including Sequoia Capital, Binance, Qatar Investment Authority and others, had received the requisite paperwork for the financing commitment from Musk’s lawyers.
The company’s stock closed at $53.35 (roughly Rs. 4,400 crore) on the NYSE on Wednesday. They were up about 1 percent at $53.90 (roughly Rs. 4,500 crore) in extended trading, slightly below Musk’s offer price.
Hours earlier, he hinted at being the company’s top boss after updating his profile’s bio to “Chief Twit”.
Banks have started to send $13 billion (roughly Rs. 1,07,000 crore) in cash backing Musk’s takeover of Twitter in a sign that the deal is on track to close by the end of the week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Once final closing conditions are met, the funds will be made available for Musk to execute the transaction by the Friday deadline, the report added.
Bank of America and Barclays declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters, while Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the six months of a dramatic back-and-forth since Musk announced his $54.20 (roughly Rs. 4,500) per share bid, Twitter initially resisted the deal by adopting a poison pill and later sued the world’s richest man after he announced plans to abandon the offer on concerns about spam accounts on the platform.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
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