Musk says he has $46.5B in financing ready to buy Twitter

Elon Musk says he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company's board to negotiate a deal.

Last week, Musk announced an offer to buy the social media platform for $54.20 per share, or about $43 billion. At the time, he did not say how he would finance the acquisition.

The Tesla CEO said Thursday in documents filed with U.S. securities regulators that the money would come from Morgan Stanley and other banks, some of it secured by his huge stake in the electric car maker.

Twitter has yet to formally respond to Musk’s offer, but the company has enacted an anti-takeover measure known as a poison pill that could make a takeover attempt prohibitively expensive.

The company said in a statement Thursday that it received Musk's updated proposal and “new information on potential financing" and said its board is “committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review.”

Musk, who owns about 9% of Twitter shares, indicated that he’s exploring what’s known as a tender offer in which Musk would try to get other shareholders to pledge their stock to him at a certain price on a certain date, bypassing the board. If enough shareholders agree, Musk could use that as leverage to get the board to drop its “poison pill” defense against his offer of $54.20 per share.

But Musk hasn't decided yet whether to do that.

The poison pill could significantly raise the costs of a takeover. If someone acquires a 15% stake in the company, it would trigger a huge payout to shareholders that could bankrupt Twitter.

Other banks involved in Musk's financing include Barclays, Bank of America, Societe Generale, Mizuho Bank, BNP Paribas and MUFG. Morgan Stanley is one of Twitter’s biggest shareholders, behind Vanguard Group and Musk.

Musk's...