Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter may actually be something the company can't refuse, and Musk reportedly met with executives on April 24 to seriously discuss his takeover proposal.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the two sides met last Sunday to discuss his $43 billion bid, which he made publicly, and he just announced that he had received $46.5 billion in legitimate financing to make it a real reality. Meanwhile, Twitter is willing to negotiate a deal, or at least listen to Musk and consider the final price tag, though EM says he won't back down on $54.20 per share.
There's more to the table, probably more than just money. Twitter's bigwigs are considering a number of factors, including the final valuation of what they see as the value of the Bird app, the possibility of inviting other bidders, and possibly even insisting that Musk pay a breakup fee (aka sweetness) if a possible deal fails, the media said.
As for why Twitter would consider the issue, Reuters reported that they were under pressure from shareholders who wanted a return. Musk has reportedly met with shareholders of some big names over the past week to explain why Twitter would be better off in his hands. Among the things he wants to change (in addition to his "free speech" objections), allow for longer tweets and move ads elsewhere. He also told several of them that you would never be able to reach my share price on your own. Twitter closed at $48.93 on Friday.
Some shareholders have told leadership that they should not only talk to Musk to find out his bottom line, but more importantly, see if they can get a bigger offer.
Time will tell if Musk is willing to spend more money on taking Twitter private, but he almost made people think he was abandoning his entire effort when he said on Twitter last Sunday to "move on" and later clarified that he was making fun of Bill Gates on climate change.
Twitter will hold an earnings call on Thursday and is expected to formally evaluate the bid. In a word — Musk's chances of taking over seem more and more real.