FOX Business host Stuart Varney discusses the upcoming Twitter shareholder meeting during the opening bell.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made an adjustment to his financing plan for his proposed $44 billion purchase of Twitter.
The revision would cut $6.25 billion from the lending package Musk had previously lined up for the Twitter buyout, according to a regulatory statement.
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That means Musk will need to raise that sum in stock commitments instead of debt. That brings the equity portion of the deal to $33.5 billion, up from the $27.25 billion disclosed three weeks ago.
The move raised investor hopes that Musk still intends to make the deal amid his concerns about the number of fake accounts on Twitter.
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. (Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Twitter shares jumped 5.5% to $39.22 in after-market trading, building on a 3.9% rise during regular trading.
The announcement on Wednesday came on the same day that Twitter held its annual shareholder meeting.
Shareholders didn’t address the Musk deal directly — that vote will be scheduled for an as-yet undetermined future date, should the deal proceed.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal declined to offer an update on the status of Musk’s bid, citing “regulatory and other reasons.”
Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t go into much detail on where Musk will get the additional equity, but emphasized that he is still trying to persuade his friend and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to throw his stock into the financing package.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TWTR | TWITTER INC. | 37.16 | +1.40 | +3.91% |
Dorsey, also a Twitter co-founder, owns a 2.4% stake currently worth about $700 million, based on the company’s closing stock price Wednesday, according to FactSet Research. Musk owns a nearly 9.6% stake worth $2.7 billion.
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Wednesday was also Dorsey’s last day as a member of Twitter’s board, a date established when he resigned as CEO last November.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
