Investors think unlikely Musk buys Twitter at agreed $44 billion price

(Reuters) – The stock market took the view for the first time on Tuesday that it was unlikely that Elon Musk will acquire Twitter Inc for $44 billion, as he originally agreed.

The implied probability of the deal closing at that price fell below 50% when Twitter shares hit $46.75, based on the $54.20 deal price and Twitter’s shares having closed at $39.31 on April 1, the last trading day before Musk revealed he had amassed a stake in the social media company.

Twitter shares fell as much as 3% to touch a low of $46.50 in afternoon trading.

Musk, the world’s richest person and also the chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc, on April 25 clinched a deal to buy the social media platform. Twitter said at the time that Musk secured $25.5 billion of debt and margin loan financing and was providing a $21 billion equity commitment.

Musk, who is worth $268 billion according to Forbes, had said he was not primarily concerned with the economics of Twitter.

“Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all,” he said in a recent public talk.

(Compiled by the Global Finance & Markets Breaking News team; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Chizu Nomiyama)