Elon Musk sells 8.4 billion worth of Tesla shares to fund Twitter takeover

Billionaire Elon Musk sold about $8.4 billion of his shares in Tesla this week as he seeks to line up the cash to buy Twitter, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. exchange (SEC).

Elon Musk sold most of his shares on Tuesday and Wednesday, dumping 4.4 million shares, according to documents filed with the US stock market watchdog. He sold an additional 5.2 million shares on Thursday. When the information was made public, he tweeted: “No further TSLA sales are expected after today. »

Tesla stock price fell 12% on Tuesday and has since risen slightly. The stock was up about 3.9% on Friday.

Elon Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter and take the social media company private for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion in total. To do this, Elon Musk secured $25.5 billion in fully committed debt, including $12.5 billion in loans against his Tesla stock.

Twitter accepted its offer earlier this week, but the deal still needs shareholder and regulatory approval.

Elon Musk will have to pay Twitter a billion-dollar termination fee if he fails to secure enough funds to close his deal to buy the company, according to a regulatory filing released Tuesday.