Musk Will Tell Twitter Employees He Still Wants the Deal to Happen

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk will reportedly tell Twitter (NYSE:) employees today that he is committed to taking the social media company private.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk will clarify his recent remarks on remote work, as well as discuss his Twitter strategy. Musk will answer employees’ questions for about an hour, the report noted.

The billionaire will reportedly tell staff that his comments about remote work were primarily focused on certain executives. Accordingly, many engineers at the companies that he runs are already working remotely.

On the strategy, Musk sees Twitter generating revenues from multiple streams, including advertising and subscriptions.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives says today’s meeting is “another clear step in the right direction towards the chances of a deal happening and a smart strategic move.”

The analyst expects the questions to center around the deal timing, his commitment, headquarters potentially moving from San Francisco to Austin, layoffs, strategy changes, as well as his desire to own the social media company in the first place.

Ives also reflected on the deal itself.

“We believe $54.20/$44 billion is essentially out the window at this point and is reflected in Twitter’s current stock price/deal spread as the Street views a clear renegotiation of the current deal likely in the cards on the fake account issue. That said, there is still a good chance Musk tries to walk away from the deal and pay the $1 billion breakup fee, although this will likely end up in a long, brutal court battle,” he told clients in a note.

Twitter shares are up over 2.2% in pre-open Thursday.