Shares of Twitter Inc. extended losses for a third session Friday, widening the gap from Elon Musk's $54.20 per share offer to buy the social platform as deal talks are said to be stuck over a debt financing contingency.
Shares in the social media firm slipped as much as 1.6% in early trading Friday, before closing down 0.2% to $49.18 on the day as concerns surrounding the transaction's funding persisted.
The Friday close makes for a difference of about $4 billion less than Musk's original offer of $44 billion, which had been based on the $54.20 share value.
The stock is now down for a third day after soaring Tuesday, when reports that the Tesla Inc. billionaire made a surprising U-turn from his effort to back out of the deal made in April. Twitter had sued to force the takeover.
Musk said Monday that his offer remains contingent on receiving $13 billion in debt financing. Bloomberg reported Thursday that talks to reach a deal had stalled, in part, because of the new contingency.
By late Thursday, a Delaware Chancery Court judge formally moved to delay an upcoming trial on the matter, originally set to start Oct. 17, saying Musk must now close the deal by Oct. 28. The judge said the trial will be rescheduled for November if he doesn't.