Washington D.C., (Business News Report)|| JPMorgan has been working to help Twitter help fending off the attack of billionaire Elon Musk, who is working to acquire the company’s shares.
Informed sources also said that Twitter has requested aassistance from JPMorgan as a second investment bank, to help it face Elon Musk’s request for a hostile takeover of the company.
The sources confirmed that the largest US bank recently started working to assist Twitter in its talks with potential buyers, while representatives of Twitter and JPMorgan declined to comment.
Alongside Musk’s offer, Twitter is also catching the interest of other parties, including the tech-focused private equity firm, Thomas Bravo, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter.
On Thursday, The New York Post reported the interest in Thomas Bravo. A representative for Thoma Bravo declined to comment.
Twitter’s reliance on JPMorgan, the bank that is not afraid of falling out with Musk, comes in light of lawsuits between the bank and Musk’s electric car maker, Tesla.
The bank and the company are suing each other over a stock guarantee dispute, linked to Musk’s tweet in 2018, in which he mentioned obtaining financing to acquire Tesla, which was retracted weeks later.
JPMorgan is the latest major bank on Wall Street to participate in the events of Musk’s takeover of Twitter, to join Goldman Sachs, which is also advising the 50-year-old billionaire, while Morgan Stanley works With Musk in that deal.
JP Morgan’s participation is a blow to the small, specialized investment banks, which have been competing to increase their share of the advisory market in return for the big companies dominating the IPO market.
Advisory investment bank Allen & Co. advised Twitter in 2020, as the struggle with activist investor Elliott Investment Management escalated, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
But this time, there does not appear to be any involvement of a small investment bank, despite the tendency of companies to add more advisors, as transactions continue.
Goldman Sachs’ participation in advisory to Twitter is a conflict of interest as the bank has historical ties to Musk, as the bank had a leading role in Musk’s failed 2018 bid to acquire Tesla.
Twitter has also adopted a strategy known as the poison pill, to help protect the company from Musk’s acquisition of more company shares, as this move can give the board of directors more time to decide how to deal with the acquisitions of company shares.
