According to The New York Post, SpaceX is proposing to sell existing shares to its employees starting Tuesday, and sources say Elon Musk may be one of the sellers.
Is it because of his $44 billion Twitter acquisition?
SpaceX's Shares To Be Sold at a $125 Billion Valuation
A private placement source familiar with the matter said SpaceX will seek $70 per share this time around, a 25% increase from its previous round, which saw a 10 to 1 stock split, equating to a $125 billion valuation. The source added that the tender offer is for existing shares rather than new stock.
It should be worth noting that Musk's company last raised $337 million in December at a valuation of $100 billion.
What Could Be the Reason for This Share Sell-Off?
The report, citing sources close to the situation, said that Musk has been attempting to acquire additional funds for his $44 billion Twitter bid and is not just having difficulty but also finding it pricey.
Instead, the billionaire might sell SpaceX shares to help fund the acquisition.
According to federal documents, Musk controlled 44% of SpaceX shares as of August.
A banking source also said that he's talking to private equity firms like Apollo Global Management and hedge funds about raising $2 billion to $4 billion in preferred financing to replace his Tesla margin loans and some of the Morgan Stanley junior financing he already has.
Read More : Elon Musk Puts Twitter's $44 Billion Deal 'On Hold' Following Pending Details on Fake Accounts
Musk Puts Twitter's Deal 'On Hold'
Musk revealed on Friday that the Twitter agreement was "on hold" until the company confirms how it measures the number of spam and bogus accounts. As per the report by Business Insider, several analysts believe this is a ruse to get Twitter to return to the negotiating table and lower the price.
As previously reported, Musk said via tweet that he's putting his plan to buy Twitter "on hold" for the time being after Twitter confirmed that fake or spam accounts accounted for fewer than 5% of its 226 million monetizable daily active users.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
The filing comes only days after Musk said that one of his top priorities would be to get rid of "spam bots" on Twitter.
Twitter's shares fell 19% after Musk announced that the takeover was on hold for the time being. It should be noted that the decision to put the acquisition on hold is the latest setback in Musk's attempt to take over the social media platform.
Meanwhile, the richest man in the world has blamed the company's reliance on advertising for the proliferation of spam bots. In the first quarter, the social media network served advertising to 229 million users.
Musk has also criticized the moderation policy of the social networking platform. He claims that Twitter's algorithm must prioritize public tweets. He was also against giving corporations that advertise too much authority over the service.
