Suddenly everything is happening very quickly: the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk seems to be dry, at least the negotiators agree on the price. The social media platform is expected to cost around 44 billion US dollars. But the money has to come from somewhere and Tesla is feeling the effects.
Tesla: Musk’s Twitter purchase impacts EV builders
Elon Musk is by far the richest person in the world. The times of the close race with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for this title are history, at least for the moment. Estimated the Tesla boss is said to be worth more than 264 billion US dollars. But even with such an unimaginable fortune, the purchase of a company like Twitter is not something that can be bought with petty cash.
Musk is expected to raise around half of the purchase price with loans, it is said. The second half should come directly from his private assets (source: Manager Magazin). However, this is by no means somewhere in the bank or in a cash storage la Scrooge McDuck – even if the eccentric would probably be capable of it. Elon Musk’s money is in his companies a large part are shares of the space company SpaceX and the electric car manufacturer Tesla.
So it’s no wonder that the announcement of the Twitter deal is making itself felt there as well. After a short reaction time after Musk’s success in negotiations with the Twitter owners became known, Tesla shares plummeted. Something over 10 percent of Tesla’s stock market value was wiped out – in just one day. A sign that Tesla shareholders are not going down well with the way Musk spends his money.
Elon Musk has more than enough money, here it comes from:
Twitter is expensive even for Musk: Is a sell-off at Tesla coming up?
But why is that? According to Neil Wilson, chief analyst at online broker Markets.com, there is two ways Musk can afford to buy Twitter: Either he opens up new funds, for example through even more loans. As the richest person in the world, his credit rating is unlikely to be lacking.
But if that doesn’t work or isn’t in Musk’s interest, the only thing left for him to do is one to sell part of his shares or to deposit in exchange, as already provided. A large-scale sale should again have a major impact on the share price – and that’s exactly what is already happening: Musk sold 4.4 million shares of his company, equivalent to about 4 billion US dollars (source: The Shareholder).
After another price slide on Thursday, Tesla shares caught up again on Friday. According to Musk no further sales planned be. Investors will have to wait and see whether he sticks to it. In any case, Tesla has not calmed down so far with regard to the takeover of Twitter.