Elon Musk seems to be on track to close his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, which is a huge deal. Mr. Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, went to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday and tweeted a nine-second video of himself smiling and carrying a porcelain sink into the building.
He wrote, “Entering Twitter HQ—let that sink in!” A judge has said that Mr. Musk, who is 51 and the richest person in the world, has until Friday to finish buying Twitter. Three Twitter employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that he is likely to go to a number of meetings at the social media company this week.
Employees and a note from Leslie Berland, the company’s chief marketing officer, said that he will also talk to Twitter employees on Friday. When asked for comment, a Twitter representative didn’t answer right away.
Elon Musk seen at Twitter headquarters as his deal to buy the company nears completion pic.twitter.com/3JgKDmYqWL
— BNO News (@BNONews) October 26, 2022
Mr. Musk’s visit to Twitter’s office suggests that, after a long and rocky few months, he plans to close the deal. In April, the rich man agreed to buy Twitter. After a few weeks, he seemed to regret his choice and tried to get out of it. Twitter sued him to make him follow the terms of the deal.
The trial is set to happen this month. Mr. Musk then changed his mind again and recommitted to the purchase. The judge in the Delaware Chancery Court case put off the trial and set Oct. 28 as the deadline for the deal to be done.
Mr. Musk has said that he will change Twitter by making it private, cutting jobs, and helping subscription businesses grow. He has said that he is a “free speech absolutist” and wants to change the rules about how content is moderated on the service, including lifting the ban on former President Donald J. Trump.
He has also said that Twitter should become an “everything app” like the Chinese app WeChat, which is used for social media, instant messaging, and mobile payments. Mr. Musk has spent the last three weeks working out the details of how he will pay for the deal, which includes borrowing $12.5 billion from Wall Street banks.
Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter may be finalized in next few days. I hope all of us stay on Twitter to continue the good fight. But no matter what please stay through Election Day so we can keep getting the message out about the GOP’s fascism!!
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) October 26, 2022
Most of the time, investment banks sell the debt they set up for such deals to reduce the amount of risk on their balance sheets. Two people who are familiar with the situation said that they are keeping the debt on their balance sheets for now because of how quickly Mr. Musk is working to close the deal and how bad the market is for this kind of debt.
Some of Twitter’s 7,500 employees have been on edge because there is so much uncertainty about the deal. Last week, the company tried to calm the fears of its employees after it was said that Mr. Musk planned to fire as many as 75% of them.
Twitter told its employees that it had no plans to lay off anyone, but that it couldn’t say what Elon Musk might do. People who want to keep working at the company as long as Mr. Musk is in charge have also worried that their pay might change.
As part of his deal to buy Twitter, Mr. Musk agreed that instead of giving employees stock options, he would give them cash bonuses on a regular basis. But because Mr. Musk has changed his mind about other parts of business deals, some employees have worried that the billionaire might not pay what he said he would.
In June, Mr. Musk had his last question-and-answer session with Twitter employees. “I want Twitter to contribute to a better, long-lasting civilization where we better understand the nature of reality,” he said at that meeting.
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