The sale of Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) to Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk could be finalized this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
What Happened: The two parties met Sunday and continued to hash out specifics of a deal, as per the report. It’s not certain that an agreement would be reached.
The change in Twitter’s stance took place after Musk met privately with several of the company’s shareholders on Friday, according to the Journal.
Musk repeated that the board has a “yes-or-no” decision and pledged to solve issues related to free speech on the platform irrespective of whether his takeover bid succeeds or not, as per the report.
See Also: How To Buy Twitter (TWTR) Shares
Why It Matters: Musk made his pitch to certain Twitter shareholders via video calls with actively managed funds being the bulk of his focus, the Journal.
He made a non-binding proposal to purchase all outstanding shares of Twitter for $54.20 per share this month.
Twitter’s board rebuffed Musk’s offer and instead chose to adopt a “poison pill” maneuver to avoid his takeover.
Some Twitter shareholders have supported Musk, according to the Journal, which quoted Lauri Brunner of Thrivent Asset Management LLC’s large-cap growth fund as saying Musk had an “established track record” at Tesla. Thrivent is also a Tesla shareholder, as per the report.
Jeff Gramm, a portfolio manager with Bandera Partners LLC told the Journal that Twitter’s board should engage with Musk since the company’s stock has “gone nowhere” since it went public.
Price Action: On Friday, Tesla shares closed 0.4% lower at $1,005.05 in the regular session, while Twitter ended 3.9% up at $48.93, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
