Elon Musk Claims He Is 'Overpaying' For $44B Twitter Deal

Billionaire Elon Musk seems to be, yet again, expressing hesitation to buy Twitter after coming to an agreement to buy the social media platform for $44 billion dollars last April.

Although an SEC filing showed that it was Musk who proposed to buy the company for $54.20 per share earlier this year, the Tesla CEO seems to be having buyer's remorse over his latest acquisition.

Not long after the SpaceX founder made the deal to buy the company, he began expressing his doubts on Twitter, claiming that the number of bot and spam accounts was really higher than reported. As such, he tweeted that the deal was "on hold" several times before eventually filing to "terminate" the deal.

Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk to compel him to follow through with the deal; however, days before he was about to be deposed, the 51-year-old billionaire suddenly had a change of heart and agreed to buy the company for its original asking price.

Although Musk's legal team has asked the social media giant to drop the lawsuit against him, Twitter refused, calling Musk's latest move "an invitation to further mischief and delay."

Judge McCormick in Delaware Chancery Court sided with Musk and granted him a trial stay. As such, Musk has until October 28 to close the deal, or else a new trial date will be scheduled for November.

Although Elon Musk had agreed to buy Twitter for his original asking price of $54.20 per share earlier this month, the world's richest man (at least according to Forbes), claimed that he is overpaying for Twitter at the end of an earnings call for Tesla, as reported by Deadline.

During the call, Musk lamented the price he agreed to pay for the social media company, while at the same time admitting that it "has incredible potential."

While discussing the quarterly results with his team, Musk said, “Although obviously, 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 also said, "I am excited about the Twitter situation," calling the social media platform an asset "that has sort of languished for a long time."

In late trading on Wednesday night, shares of the social media giant were up 1.49%, to about $52.60, which is still below the price that Musk agreed to pay, but much higher than they were in recent months when Musk's wishy-washy tweets made the deal uncertain.

Some financial analysts speculated that Musk was having trouble financing the purchase, which is why he had been selling off a large number of shares in his electric car company to fund the purchase. The sale made some uneasy over Tesla's future, although Musk seemed to stay cool under the mounting pressure.

On the earnings call on Wednesday night, the entrepreneur was asked about the possibility of folding all of his businesses, including SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter, under one umbrella. Musk admitted, “It’s not clear to me what the overlap is. It’s not zero, but we’re reaching.”

He continued to say, “I am not Warren Buffett. I am not an investor. I am an engineer and manufacturing person and technologist. I actually work and design and develop products. We are not going to have a portfolio of investments or whatever. I don’t see an obvious window where they could get combined. At least now.”

It should be noted that he has not finalized his Twitter acquisition just yet. Musk and his team have until October 28 to close the deal, or else a new trial date will be scheduled for next month in Delaware Chancery Court, where Twitter is hoping that a judge will compel Musk to follow through with the deal.

As for Musk, he released a somewhat cryptic tweet on Wednesday night, tweeting, "I will not let you down, no matter what it takes."