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Comment by vishnugupta | Hacker News Reader

It’s an all cash offer. Do folks here who manage such things educate us how could Musk muster such cash? Genuinely curious.

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He can borrow against his Tesla and Space X holdings. The Twitter stake itself can be used as collateral. Or he can sell shares of them.

There is LBO financing, where the purchased company itself borrows to fund the purchase. But I doubt a company as risky as Twitter can borrow a significant fraction of the purchase price. And Musk doesn't have a history of using financial engineering like that.

LBO with Personal Guarantee and Tesla shares as security is strong.

You're mixing terms. "Leveraged buyout" is really a term of art referring to a purchase largely financed by debt issued by the purchased company. It only works with well established businesses with really reliable revenue streams. If the business fails, the debts go unpaid.

I would be surprised if Twitter could raise as much as 10% or 20% of its own purchase price.

Debt financing. It’s easy when you have an enormous net worth as collateral and close relationships with leaders of big banks/investment firms.

You can get an idea from Michael Dell’s takeover of his eponymous company.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2013/10/30/you-...

Though in the case of Dell, he had financing commitments lined up along with his offer. Musk has demonstrated no such commitments.

I don't think he has to demonstrate it to you or other members of the general public, just have it available if the board accepts.

The board won’t accept anything without those financing commitments. That’s the point.

if the board wanted to sell they would establish that in a reply and ask for the details of his financing. They don't want to sell and financing isn't the issue, its just a red herring.

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