The tide has turned: Loans from Twitter acquisition sold without loss
After Elon Musk bought Twitter, the banks involved could only have sold their loans at a huge loss. That has changed completely.
(Image: Angga Budhiyanto/Shutterstock.com)
Banks that helped finance Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter have sold the majority of their loans in recent weeks, with only minimal discounts. Bloomberg reports this and explains that the last tranche, worth 4.74 billion US dollars, was sold at par value after initially being sold for 3 billion US dollars. Previously, a package with an original value of one billion US dollars was sold for 90 to 95 percent of this, and a further 5.5 billion US dollars was sold for 97 percent of the purchase price. This means that the banks now only hold around one billion US dollars in loans from the purchase instead of the original 13 billion US dollars.
Better prospects again
According to the report, the turnaround is partly due to improved business figures for Musk's short messaging service, which has long been called X. In December, the platform took in 40 percent more money than a year earlier and 21 percent more than in November. Business for the Super Bowl was also better than in 2024. In addition, Musk's close relationship with US President Donald Trump has changed the situation; while some investors hope to benefit from this, others at least see a brighter future for X, adds the New York Times. In addition, more and more advertisers are returning to the platform, while Musk is taking even more aggressive action against those who have turned their backs on X.
Videos by heise
The successful sale of almost all bank loans is now the latest turning point in the turbulent history of Twitter and X under Musk's leadership. When he took over Twitter in the fall of 2022 for 44 billion US dollars, seven banks participated with the same 13 billion US dollars. Normally, such loans are sold on quickly, but the chaos at Twitter was such a deterrent that the banks would only have received 60 percent of the money in the meantime. Just two months ago, the loans would only have gone with a loss of 10 to 20 percent, the New York Times has learned. So the turnaround has now taken place quite quickly in parallel with Donald Trump's assumption of office.
(mho)
