Elon Musk reportedly seeking debt funding for Twitter bid

Elon Musk looked to be hunting for funding for his $43bn bid to take over the social network Twitter, it emerged on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the New York Times, Morgan Stanley had been sounding out banks and other possible investors to secure financing for Musk’s deal.

Morgan Stanley was previously reported to be working with Musk on the Twitter bid.

The NYT said the billionaire Tesla chief was currently looking at debt financing, rather than equity funding.

Elon Musk made the unsolicited offer for Twitter last week, saying he wanted to take the company private and ensure people could tweet more freely.

At the time, he offered no details on how he would fund the offer.

The Twitter board did not formally reject Musk’s offer, but it did announce a ‘poison pill’ in response, which would essentially stop the 50-year-old from buying up more than 15% of the firm.

Musk’s tweets have long been the subject of controversy, as well as regulatory action, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) currently requiring all of his tweets to be pre-approved.

That was part of his settlement with the regulator after he tweeted in August 2018 that he had “secured” funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.

Musk’s 2018 tweet was not followed up with any formal proposals to take the company private, and he was charged with securities fraud for the post.