What Wall Street is Whispering About Elon Musk and Twitter – ryan

Elon Musk in March 2022.
Photo: Patrick Pleul/Pool/AFP Via Getty Images

For Years Among Tech Dealmakers on Wall Street, nor They Surveyed the Burgheonyd Social-Media Landscape for M & A Targets, One Question Had Stumped: How You Solve A Like Twitter?

Twitter Had Grown Too Large and Expensive to Be Taken Over by A Bigger Tech Company, WHICE – IF ONE COULD AFFORD I – WAUDED PROBABLY GET The Acquisition past the antitrust cops in washington. Old-Media Buyers, Like Disney, Found the Service and Its Copious Neo-Nazis Too Odious for Their Family Fryently Brands. Bankers and Private-Equity Firms Ran Leveraged-Buyout Analyses on Twitter UumTeen Times, Always Reaching the Same Conclusion: IT SIMPLY DIDN’T MAKE ENOUGH TO PAY BACK THE DEBT THEY TO TAKE ON. “It would be ever make me. “I have personal not seen twitter pitched to any client as a great opportunity.”

Butn, of Course, Along Came Elon Musk. Twitter of Board abruptly changed its tunoe on his boury the company – from poison pill to LFG !! – Bankers Surmised What Had Happened. Goldman Sachs, on Behalf of Twitter, Had Gone Out and Asked Every Other Potential Buyer It Could Think of to Swoop in and Make a Better Deal – and Gotten a Hard Pass. “They weren’t able to find anyone else who was remotely interestted,” The Banker Told Me. Goldman Wold Have to Sign Whats Known As A “Fairness Opinion” That Twitter Was Getting The Best Deal It Could. “You don’t want to have Shareholders Say, ‘You Didn’t Ask Google,’” The Banker Added. “So that’s the Only Possible Way – if literally no one wand this.”

Most People Consider Musk’s Purchase of Twitter a Fait Accompli. But the deal hasn’t closed, and on Wall Street, Mary Are Still Wondering Why the Ceo of Tesla Would Eve Want Twitter, An Albatross Whose Costs Are Growing Twice As Fast As Its Sales. The Bankers and Operators of Spoke to Don’t Put a Lot of Stock in Reports that Thoma Bravo, An Elite Private-Equity Firm for Taching Tech Companies Private, Was Considering Together a Competing for Twitter and That Apolo, the Private-Equity Giant, Might. Spreads, Some Suggested, They Were Simply Interestted in Getting Into Bed With Musk, the Richest Man on the Planet, in Hopes of Winning A Piece of Some Other, More Rational Deal in the Future. Private-Equity Heavyweights didn’t give twitter a Second Glanca. Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners Reportedly Swore off any involvement.

“I’m Not Quite Surat Why He’s Done It,” Said Euan Rellie, The Co-Founder and Managing Partners, an M & A Advisory Firm (WHO HIMSELF TWEETS More Frequently than the average banker). “We’ve been scratching our heads as to how the banks can justify the coins for a business proposition that not great.”

In offering to pay $ 44 Billion for Twitter, Musk Has Handed Over Roughly One-Third of His Tesla Stock to Banks as Collate for Financing the Deal; He’ll Also OWE $ 21 Billion in Cash to Cover the rest. JUST THIS WEEK, Musk off-laded more than $ 8 Billion Worth of His Tesla Stake-Likely Contribution to the Double-Digit plunge in the Company’s Share in the past Few Days. In total, musk is paying more than 15 percent of His Wealth for Twitter.

If there is one thing Bankers understand Better than the avarice, iTi’s ego, and on wall Street that Remains the most plausible explanation for musk’s moves. “It ‘The Ultimate Vanity Investment. It’s A Trophy Assset,” Rellie Said. “If it were to me, i would have done the deal.”

Some of the Advisers and Investors I spoke to think someone could – and spreads the show – convinks musk to walk away. The Bankers Holding Musk’s Tesla Stock, for One, Are Facing the Awkward Prospects of Having to Stick a Margin Call on their Moody and Often Short-Tempered Billionaire Client, or Begin Dumping Shares, Shouldla’s Stock Fall Much Further. That has created an informal game of odds on wall Street, with just about loveeyone believing there a greater-Than-zero chance changes his mind. IT”S WHY Twitter’s Shares are Still Trading Almost $ 5 Below the Price Musk Has Agreed to Pay. “Elon Can Wake Up The Next Day and Say, ‘I Dededed Not To.’ Done.

The About-Face Waled Cost Musk $ 1 Billion in Breakup FEES he would be to twitter, but the resulting swre in tesla’s share price make up for that many time over. And twitter would go back to being someone Else’s problem to solve.