Elon Musk Closing $44B Twitter Deal Means Patrick Fallon Profited
The closing year of 2022 was quite slow for Wall Street’s M&A as an increasingly difficult macro environment weighed on dealmakers and their ability to fund expensive deals. Still, Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to close the Twitter deal, which was agreed in April for $44 billion.
After a long saga, Musk decided to close the Twitter buyout at an original price in October, taking the social media giant private. In one of his first moves, Musk moved quickly to dismiss top executives.
Musk closing the Twitter deal at $54.20 per share was a significant coup for long-term investors who watched shares underperform for over 9 years. Twitter priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $26 per share in 2013.
The list of investors who profited from Musk’s $44 billion take-private deal also includes Rep. Pat Fallon, a Republican from Texas. Congressman Fallon disclosed Friday that he sold between $50,000 - $100,000 worth of Twitter stock at the end of October when the deal was closed.
Earlier this year, Rep. Fallon disclosed that he invested in Twitter. He was buying shares on January 19 and 24, when the stock price closed at 37.35 & 35.06 respectively. This implies Mr. Fallon made a profit of over 50% on his Twitter bet given the $54.20 per share deal price.
Congressman Fallon is a member of the House Committee on Armed Services and Oversight and Reform.