Musk says excited by Twitter deal despite overpaying

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct 19 (Reuters) – Elon Musk on Wednesday said he was excited about his pending acquisition of Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), although he and other investors were overpaying for the social media company.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, was answering a question during a call after the electric vehicle maker’s quarterly report. The world’s richest person is pursuing the Twitter purchase after earlier trying to back out of the $44 billion deal.

Musk described Twitter as an asset that had “languished” for a long time. “Myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now. The long term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,” he said.

In the same conference call Musk also spoke optimistically about Tesla. Tesla, with a market cap now under $700 billion, could be worth more than the combined value of Apple Inc’s $2.3 trillion and oil producer Saudi Aramco’s $2.1 trillion, he said.

Musk has been trying to raise cash to fund the Twitter purchase, and some experts say he may need to sell about $3 billion more in stock after the Tesla quarterly report to do so.

A Delaware judge ordered a pause to Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) lawsuit against Elon Musk, giving the billionaire until Oct. 28 to close the deal.

Tesla investors feared that the billionaire may sell more Tesla stocks to finance the deal and may be spreading himself too thin, pulling down shares.

Musk, CEO of SpaceX, and Neuralink and Boring Company, said on Wednesday that he does not have a current plan to combine them with Twitter under one umbrella.

Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Peter Henderson in San Francisco and Akash Sriram in Bangalore; Editing by Sandra Maler

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