Twitter is poised to agree a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion in cash, the price the CEO of Tesla has called his best and final offer for the social media company, Reuters news report said.
Twitter may announce the $54.20-per-share deal on Monday once its board has met to recommend the transaction to Twitter shareholders.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is negotiating to buy Twitter in a personal capacity and Tesla is not involved in the deal.
Twitter has not been able to secure so far a go-shop provision under its agreement with Elon Musk that would allow it to solicit other bids once the deal is signed. Twitter would be allowed to accept an offer from another party by paying Elon Musk a break-up fee.
The 50-year-old entrepreneur, who is also CEO of rocket developer SpaceX, has said he wants to combat trolls on Twitter and proposed changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price and banning advertising.
The billionaire, a vocal advocate of cryptocurrencies, has also suggested adding dogecoin as a payment option on Twitter.
He has said Twitter’s current leadership team is incapable of getting the company’s stock to his offer price on its own. Parag Agrawal is the CEO of Twitter after founder Jack Dorsey decided to step down from the top position in late November.
The sale would represent an admission by Twitter that Parag Agrawal is not making enough traction in making the company more profitable, despite being on track to meet financial goals the company set for 2023.
