Twitter drops as Musk's bid in jeopardy, Wedbush says original offer 'out the window'
Scott Olson

Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) shares dropped on Friday after it was reported that Elon Musk's bid to buy the company was in "serious jeopardy," leading Wedbush Securities to suggest that the original offer price is "out the window."
Analyst Dan Ives lowered his price target on Twitter (TWTR) stock to $43, noting there is roughly a 60% chance that the deal is renegotiated with a lower price between $42 and $45. This comes despite the fact that Twitter's board has said the cash offer of $54.20 per share is final and recently advised shareholders to approve the deal, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"We believe $54.20 at this point is essentially out the window (5% chance) and the Street will be closely watching both the bot issue and the financing component of the deal (debt deal for $44 billion, while the stock's current market cap is currently at ~$30 billion valuation)," Ives wrote in a note to clients.
He added that there is a roughly 35% probability that Musk simply walks away from the deal, tries to pay a $1B breakup fee and it "ends up in a nasty court battle." 
Twitter (TWTR) shares fell more than 4% to $37.19 in premarket trading.
According to the Financial Times, Twitter's (TWTR) Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, who is seen as more measured and diplomatic than the enigmatic Musk, has spoken to Musk on several occasions and the two are aligned on a number of issues on how the company should be run.
Twitter (TWTR) reports second-quarter results later this month and it's unclear if there will be any resolution on the deal between now and then.
Ives added that the financing portion of the deal is "complex" and the ongoing battle between Twitter (TWTR) and Musk is likely to "come to some sort of finale" in the next several months, as it has caused chaos for Twitter employees and been a "huge overhang" for Tesla (TSLA) shares. 
Separately on Thursday, Twitter (TWTR) held a press briefing where it showed that spam accounts or bots represent far less than 5% of total accounts on the platform, something Musk has considered to be a major sticking point in the deal.