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Elon Musk admitted Wednesday that he’s “obviously” overpaying to acquire Twitter Inc., but said the social network’s long-term potential far surpasses its current value.
Speaking in a conference call following Tesla Inc.’s quarterly earnings Wednesday, the EV company’s chief executive said Twitter
TWTR,
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has “incredible potential.”
““The long-term potential for Twitter, in my view, is an order of magnitude greater than its current value.””
— Elon Musk
“I am excited about the Twitter situation,” Musk said, according to a FactSet transcript, “because obviously I know that part incredibly well. And I think it’s massive … and has sort of languished for a long time but has incredible potential.”
“Although obviously, myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for it with Twitter right now,” he added.
Musk’s self-proclaimed excitement comes after he finally offered to end his efforts to back out of the $44 billion deal for Twitter, which he agreed to buy at $54.20 a share in April. A trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery has been postponed, and Musk and Twitter have until Oct. 28 to finalize a deal.
Also see: Twitter lawyers said Musk was being investigated over acquisition conduct
Musk added Wednesday that it’s unlikely that he will bring all of his companies, which include Tesla
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+0.84%,
SpaceX and Neuralink, under a single corporate umbrella.
“I’m not Warren Buffett,” he said. “I’m not an investor. I am an engineer and a manufacturing person and a technologist… we are not going to have a portfolio of investments or whatever.”
Twitter ended trading Wednesday at $52.58 a share, up about 25% since Oct. 4, when he announced his intention to go through with the purchase.
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