Twitter ’empty-handed’ enters talks with Elon Musk over $43 billion bid Business

Twitter has reportedly taken a fresh look at Elon Musk’s $43bn (£33bn) takeover bid in a sign of a thaw in relations between the two parties.

Twitter and Mr Musk were meeting on Sunday to discuss the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, which said the social media site’s board was now “more receptive to a deal”.

This follows Twitter’s efforts to sabotage the approach earlier this month, including launching a “poison pill” tactic that would allow it to flood the market with new action, should Mr Musk seek more control.

The billionaire recently announced that he was launching a takeover bid for the company, having already bought a 9% stake. He previously hinted that he was considering a takeover bid to all shareholders, which Twitter’s board won’t be able to stop. Late last week it emerged he had since secured $47 billion in funding for the deal, which included using part of his Tesla stake as collateral.

There had, however, been much speculation over the weekend that Mr Musk might have reconsidered the offer, after posting a cryptic tweet saying: ‘Let’s move on…’ He then clarified that he was moving on from “to make fun of [Bill] Gates,” the Microsoft founder who Mr. Musk criticized in a series of posts on Friday.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said reports that Mr Musk and Twitter were meeting over the weekend suggested “things changed everything for Twitter’s board once Musk formally aligned the $46.5 billion in funding for the Twitter offering detailed last week.” .

“While the council approved the poison pill that basically gave them time to find a ‘white knight’ and a second bidder, [it is] they are likely now empty-handed from private equity circles watching a hostile takeover process likely launched this week by Musk for the offer.”

Twitter will report its first-quarter results later this week, with analysts expecting its earnings to have fallen.

Mr Ives said the results “likely won’t be rainbows and smiles, putting further pressure on the business around this high-stakes poker game with Musk’s offer looming “.

Twitter declined to comment on the information.