In an interview with CNBC on Monday, activist investor Bill Ackman said he had not spoken with Elon Musk about a deal including X, formerly known as Twitter, but that he liked the company and Musk and that a deal with X would be acceptable if Musk wanted one.
“I have a great deal of respect for Musk, I believe Twitter is a tremendously important platform, I think he’s made amazing improvements to the platform, and I think it’s a very-difficult-to-disrupt kind of asset,” Ackman said in an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.
A SPARC, or special purpose acquisition rights business, was being discussed by Pershing Square Holdings’ billionaire CEO. Although the product resembles a SPAC, Pershing’s structure, according to Ackman, would only invest in businesses that it sees as long-term investments. Because SPACs favoured insiders and allowed them to make substantial gains off of disfavored investors, they attracted a great deal of investor and regulatory scrutiny.
Ackman singled out X’s crippling debt burden, which totals about $13 billion and is due to a group of banks, as a justification for Musk to accept the deal and sell a stake in X once more. Banks are dissatisfied and searching for ways to leave, according to a study from The Financial Times published last month.
Source (CNBC)
