“A beautiful thing about Twitter is how it empowers citizen journalism – people are able to disseminate news without an establishment bias,’ said Elon Musk.
Twitter (TWTR) – Get Twitter Inc. Report moved higher Thursday officials at the New York Stock Exchange prepared to suspend the shares from trading tomorrow ahead of the Delaware court’s deadline for Elon Musk to complete his $44 billion takeover of the social media group.
Musk visited the company’s San Francisco headquarters yesterday, sharing photos of himself with his 110.2 million Twitter followers, and appears ready to consummate the months-long merger agreement by tomorrow’s deadline.
The billionaire Tesla CEO is expected to formally address Twitter employees on Friday, but reportedly told some yesterday that he does not plan to cut as much as 75% of the group’s workforce when he assumes control of the company at 5 pm Eastern time on October 28.
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The $54.20 per share price he’s been ordered to pay, however, looks wildly over-valued given the warnings on advertising spending articulated by companies such as Snap (SNAP) – Get Snap Inc. Class A Report, Google (GOOGL) – Get Alphabet Inc. Report and Meta (META) – Get Meta Platforms Inc. Report, as well as the fact that the Nasdaq has fallen nearly 20% since the takeover was first initiated on April 14.
Musk himself told Tesla investors on October 20 that he’s “excited about the Twitter situation”, even as he conceded that “myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying” for the social media group.
Twitter shares were marked 1.1% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $53.92 each, the highest since early April.
Musk’s takeover could still face hurdles, however, even if he completes the deal as expected over the coming days.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the deal could be subject to a national security review, amid growing concern with a number of recent statements from Musk that appear to suggest a pro-Russia stance amid that country’s invasion of Ukraine and his threat to cut off access to the Starlink satellite service, which he put down to funding costs born by its operator SpaceX.
A perception of close ties with China, the site of Tesla’s biggest and most important gigafactory and world’s largest car market, has only added to concerns with respect to the billionaire’s political connections.
