Musk lugs sink into Twitter HQ as $44B deal deadline looms

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk posted video Wednesday showing him strolling into Twitter headquarters carrying a sink ahead of a Friday deadline to close his $44 billion deal to buy the company.

Musk also changed his Twitter profile to refer to himself as "Chief Twit" and his location as Twitter headquarters.  

A court has given Musk until Friday to close his April agreement to acquire the company after he earlier tried to back out of the deal. Neither Musk nor Twitter has said if the deal is closed yet.

The splashy video — a vintage Musk production — also pulled the spotlight back to the world's richest man and his on-again, off-again pursuit of the social platform.  

Despite Musk high-profile entry to headquarters, it wasn't clear whether his purchase of Twitter had been finalized. Twitter confirmed that Musk's video tweet was real but wouldn't comment further. Alex Spiro, Musk's lead lawyer, didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Musk had been expected to visit Twitter this week and is expected to return again Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in a report by Bloomberg News.

His apparent enthusiasm about visiting Twitter headquarters stood in sharp contrast to one of his earlier suggestions that the building should be turned into a "homeless shelter" because, he said, so few employees actually worked there.

Several hours after posting his sink video, Musk tweeted that he was meeting "a lot of cool people at Twitter today!" He gave no details.

Some analysts say Musk's sink stunt may not bode well with the rank-and-file at Twitter, who are likely pre-occupied with recent reports that Musk mused laying off 75 percent of its workforce in talks with prospective investors.

Olaf Groth, a business strategist and professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, said Musk doesn't seem to care what his potential employees think of him.

"He is known for ruffling feathers amongst employees. It's not my preferred leadership style but arguably he does have to create a bit of an upheaval at this company if he wants to turn it around," Groth said. "He has to watch that this doesn't lead to an exodus of the good people amongst the employees right—the top performers that he wants to retain."

If the transaction does go through on Friday, Groth says Musk has his work cut out for him.

"He's gonna have to do performance assessments and fit assessments on some of his top management to see who is with him and who is not and that will have to happen in reasonably short order because Wall Street and really all of Twitter's members are waiting for the next phase here."

Robert Anderson, a law professor at Pepperdine University, said he fully expects the deal to close by Friday's deadline but didn't make much of Musk's video.

"I think he's just visiting the headquarters, and I don't see anything unusual about it, other than that he brought a sink," Anderson said.

One of Musk's biggest obstacles to closing the deal was keeping in place the financing pledged roughly six months ago.

A group of banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, signed on earlier this year to loan $12.5 billion of the money Musk needed to buy Twitter and take it private. Solid contracts with Musk bound the banks to the financing, although changes in the economy and debt markets since April have likely made the terms less attractive. Musk even said his investment group would be buying Twitter for more than it's worth.

Less clear is what's happening with the billions of dollars pledged to Musk by investors who would get ownership stakes in Twitter. Musk's original slate of equity partners included an array of partners ranging from the billionaire's tech world friends with like-minded ideas about Twitter's future, such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, to funds controlled by Middle Eastern royalty.

The more equity investors kick in for the deal, the less Musk has to pay on his own. Most of his wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla, the electric car company that he runs. Since April, he has sold more than $15 billion worth of Tesla stock, presumably to pay his share. More sales could be coming.

Musk's flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. That's when Twitter said he contacted members of its board — including co-founder Jack Dorsey — and told them he was buying up shares and was interested in either joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.

Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had become the company's largest shareholder after acquiring a 9% stake worth about $3 billion.

At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. His bid to buy the company quickly followed.

When Musk agreed to buy Twitter, he inserted a "420" marijuana reference into his price of $54.20 per share. He sold roughly $15 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase, then pulled together commitments for billions more from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

Inside Twitter, Musk's offer was met with confusion and falling morale, especially after Musk publicly criticized one of Twitter's top lawyers involved in content-moderation decisions.

In July, Musk abruptly reversed course, announcing that he was abandoning his bid to buy Twitter. His stated reason: Twitter hadn't been straightforward about its problem with fake accounts he dubbed "spam bots." Twitter sued Musk in Delaware Chancery Court to force the deal through. Two weeks before a 5-day trial was scheduled to begin, Musk changed his mind again, saying that he wanted to complete the deal after all.

Sara Donchey contributed to this story.