Carl Icahn, a Twitter stake worth more than $500 million, made a sizable profit on Tuesday after Elon Musk proposed to take over the social media platform, according to the Wall Street Journal.
After a securities filing showed that Musk intends to go ahead with his April offer of $44 billion to take the company private, the shares of Twitter rose more than 22% to $52.00, signalling an end to a legal battle that could have forced Musk to pay up.
Icahn paid a share for the stake in the mid- $30 s, according to people familiar with the matter, according to the report. The estimated profit for Icahn Enterprises LP could exceed $250 million, it said.
The report said that Icahn made the investment on the belief that Tesla Inc. chief Musk wouldn't go through a trial that he looked likely to lose. He believed that the stock was worth close to the mid-$30 s in the long term.
Other investors, including D.E. According to the report, Shaw Group and Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC placed bets on Twitter shares in recent months and could fetch sizable gains as well.
Third Point didn't want to make a statement. Shaw Group, Twitter and others didn't respond immediately to Reuters' requests for comment.