Musk Failed to Convince Twitter to Lower the Deal Price

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Elon Musk’s representatives contacted Twitter (NYSE:) weeks ago and sought a 30% discount on the agreed price of $54.20 per share, the New York Times reported.

Twitter dismissed such a request and subsequent proposals from Musk to cut the deal price by 10%. Ultimately, Musk gave in and committed to completing the deal at the original price, just days before his deposition was supposed to take place. Eventually, Tesla CEO and Twitter agreed to delay Musk’s deposition.

Bloomberg News reported that the two sides could reach a deal at the original price within the next week. The two parties continue to focus on hashing out conditions tied to financing and dropping litigation over the stalled takeover, a report in the WSJ noted.

Some sides previously involved in the deal, such as Apollo Global Management, Inc. (NYSE:), reportedly backed out of the deal months ago, as per Reuters.

In the meantime, the judge in the Musk-Twitter trial said yesterday that neither party had moved to stop the litigation.

“The parties have not filed a stipulation to stay this action, nor has any party moved for a stay,” the judge wrote Wednesday. “I, therefore, continue to press on toward our trial set to begin on October 17.”

Some analysts suggested in recent days that Musk may have to sell more Tesla (NASDAQ:) stock to meet the financing requirements for the Twitter deal. He previously sold $15.4 billion worth of shares of the electric vehicle (EV) maker.

“We see lingering impacts from Musk stock sales as a drag dissipating but the big worry is Musk juggling too many balls at the same time,” Wedbush analysts said.

“We continue to believe the deal gets done smoothly despite some late night poker moves from the Twitter camp with the Delaware Court case around the corner,” the analysts added.

Shares of Tesla closed 3.5% lower yesterday and are down a further 1% in pre-open Thursday. Twitter stock is down 1.1% to trade below $51 per share.