(Reuters) – Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter Inc for $43 billion in cash, and the $16.4 billion he netted from sales of Tesla Inc shares last year could help.
“Musk could look to fund the transaction, if approved, through a combination of debt financing and potentially Tesla shares,” CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said.
“Given the size of the transaction, we think it is conceivable that some Tesla shares could be sold given much of his wealth is tied to the company.”
Here’s a look at the string of transactions Musk made as he offloaded about 10% of his stake in the electric car maker to meet to meet tax withholding obligations related to the exercise of stock options.
DATE SHARES ACQUIRED SHARES SOLD GROSS PROCEEDS
NOV. 8 2.2 mln
NOV. 8 934,091 $1.10 bln
NOV. 9 3.1 mln $3.35 bln
NOV. 10 500,000 $527.3 mln
NOV. 11 639,737 $687.3 mln
NOV. 12 1.2 mln $1.24 bln
NOV. 15 2.1 mln
NOV. 15 934,091 $930.7 mln
NOV. 16 2.1 mln
NOV. 16 934,091 $973.4 mln
NOV. 23 2.2 mln
934,091 $1.05 bln
DEC. 2 2.1 mln
934,091 $1.01 bln
Dec.9 2.2 mln
934,091 $963.2 mln
Dec.13 2.1 mln
934,091 $906.5 mln
Dec.16 2.2 mln
934,091 $884.1 mln
Dec.21 2.09 mln
934,091 $853.7 mln
Dec. 22 2.11 mln 934,091 $928.6 mln
Dec. 28 1.6 Mln 934,090 $1.02 bln
Total 22.9 mln 15.7 mln $16.4 bln
Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan warned of the possibility of more share sales to come.
“There is a risk if he (Musk) decides to sell more Tesla shares to fund the takeover which could put pressure on the stock.”
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Franscisco, Uday Sampath, Chavi Mehta and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
