Feb 14, 2025 - Business

Lenders to Elon Musk's Twitter takeover are almost out

Dan Primack

Photo illustration of Elon Musk forming an "x" shape in the place of the "x" in an exit sign — Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Morgan Stanley and other lenders to Elon Musk's Twitter takeover yesterday reportedly sold around $4.7 billion of X debt at face value.

Why it matters: This blows away expectations for the deal, in terms of both volume and pricing, and leaves creditors with only around $1.3 billion of their $12.5 billion outlay.

Original plans were to sell $3 billion of debt at a 10%-20% discount.

Zoom in: One explanation is that X has improved its finances, although that's still fuzzy. For example, WSJ recently reported that X's 2024 revenue includes "hundreds of millions of dollars" transferred from xAI, leaving unclear if there's been any organic top-line growth.

Better rationales are Musk's newfound proximity to power and the social media company's equity stake in xAI.

The bottom line: Musk long ago abandoned the Twitter branding but, in this case, par is a birdie.

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Lenders to Elon Musk's Twitter takeover are almost out

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