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Anonymous ID: e607ef April 25, 2022, 7:08 a.m. No.16149765   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9939 >>9970 >>0145 >>0248 >>0397 >>0489

Twitter, under shareholder pressure, begins deal talks with Musk

Svea Herbst-Bayliss

April 25, 20226:23 AM

 

April 24 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) kicked off deal negotiations with Elon Musk on Sunday after he wooed many of the social media company's shareholders with financing details on his $43 billion acquisition offer, people familiar with the matter said.

 

The company's decision to engage with Musk, taken earlier on Sunday, does not mean that it will accept his $54.20 per share bid, the sources said. It signifies, however, that Twitter is now exploring whether a sale of the company to Musk is possible on attractive terms, the sources added.

 

Musk, chief executive of electric car giant Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), has been meeting with Twitter shareholders in the last few days, seeking support for his bid. He has said Twitter needs to be taken private to grow and become a genuine platform for free speech. read more

 

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Many Twitter shareholders reached out to the company after Musk outlined a detailed financing planfor his bid on Thursday and urged it not to let the opportunity for a deal slip away, Reuters reported earlier on Sunday. read more

 

Musk's insistence that his bid for Twitter is his "best and final" has emerged as a hurdle in the deal negotiations, the sources said. Nevertheless, Twitter's board has decided to engage with Musk to gather more information on his ability to complete the deal, and potentially get better terms, the sources added.

 

Twitter has not yet decided if it will explore a sale to put pressure on Musk to raise his bid, according to the sources. The people with knowledge of the matter declined to be identified because the deal discussions are confidential.

 

Twitter wants to know more about any active investigations by regulators into Musk, including by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that would present a risk to the deal being completed, one of the sources said.

 

Securities lawyers say that Musk, who settled charges that he misled investors by suggesting four years ago he had secured funding to take Tesla private, may have breached SEC disclosure rules as he amassed a stake in Twitter earlier this year. read more

 

Twitter is also looking into whether regulators in any of the major markets it operates would object to Musk owning the company, the source added. Were Twitter to establish that a sale to Musk would be risky, it could ask for a sizeable break-up fee, according to the sources.

 

The social media company adopted a poison pill after Musk made his offer to prevent him from raising his more than 9% stake in the company above 15% without negotiating a deal with its board. In response, Musk has threatened to launch a tender offer that he could use to register Twitter shareholder support for his bid.

 

A concern that Twitter's board weighed was that unless it sought to negotiate a deal with Musk, many shareholders could back him in a tender offer, the sources said.

 

While the poison pill would prevent Twitter shareholders from tendering their shares, the company is worried that its negotiating hand would weaken considerably if it was shown to be going against the will of many of its investors, the sources added.

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-twitter-under-shareholder-pressure-seek-deal-with-musk-sources-say-2022-04-24/

Anonymous ID: e607ef April 25, 2022, 8:09 a.m. No.16150138   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0141 >>0145 >>0397 >>0489

Ratcliffe predicts still-classified documents will blow Durham inquiry wide open

| April 24, 2022 09:14 AM

A great deal more Russiagate intelligence remains shrouded from public view and will stun the nation, according to former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.

 

The Trump-era spy chief expounded upon his expectation that there will be many more indictments in special counsel John Durham's criminal inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Russia investigation.

 

"I expect there to be a lot more indictments to be forthcoming from John Durham besides the ones that have trickled out so far. And that's based upon documents, some of which — many of which are not yet declassified," Ratcliffe said during a recent episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.

 

Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman from Texas who oversaw the nation's 17 intelligence agencies in the latter part of the Trump administration, announced in October 2020 that he had handed over nearly 1,000 pages of materials to the Justice Department to assist Durham, who is revealing more secrets as he takes people to court.

 

Durham has two active prosecutions, including a case against the main source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele's anti-Trump dossier and a case against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, whose trial is scheduled to begin next month. Durham has obtained only a single guilty plea, which came from former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted to altering an email about a Trump campaign aide under government surveillance.

 

"The coordinated effort here that took place in 2016 was wide and broad. I think it involved folks in the Clinton campaign, in the Democratic national party, elected officials, media officials, folks that coordinated — intelligence community officials, and on down the line," Ratcliffe said. "I'm not saying that every single one of those folks have criminal liability or exposure. I'm just saying this was a very coordinated effort and the more and more the public finds out about the things that I've seen that remain classified, they'll be more and more appalled by those efforts in 2016."

 

Ratcliffe also said that "there are folks that had access to classified information that didn't have the clearances to see that and saw it in places that were not secure," pointing in particular to the Alfa Bank controversy involving a now-debunked Trump-Russia link.

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ratcliffe-predicts-still-classified-documents-will-blow-durham-inquiry-wide-open