Tesla shares dip after CEO Elon Musk reaches deal to acquire Twitter

Tesla Inc. shares dipped slightly in afternoon trade, after Chief Executive Elon Musk reached an agreement to acquire Twitter Inc. , raising concerns about how much he will be distracted in running the electric car company. The stock, which opened at $978.97 and touched an intraday high of $1,008.62, was last down 1.3% at $991.30. The news was expected after media reports said the Twitter board was close to agreeing a deal. Musk had made a bid for the company at $54.20 a share, which has now been accepted. He has secured $25.5 billion of debt and margin loan financing and is providing about $21 billion in equity himself. Musk said he wants to make Twitter better, “by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.” Tesla shares are down 6% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has fallen 10%.

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