Greg Roumeliotis and Svea Herbst Bayliss

(Reuters) – Twitter Inc (NYSE:) faces increasing shareholder pressure to reach an agreement with Elon Musk, even though Musk has declared his bid of $43 billion for the social media platform as his final and best offer. This is according to people who are familiar with the situation.

Although opinions differ on what the fair price of a deal is for Twitter shareholders, they reached out to them after Musk presented his plan for acquisition financing on Thursday. Sources spoke on condition of anonymity to say that many of these people reached out to Musk.

Twitter’s board will likely find Musk’s $54.20 per share cash offer too low when it reports its quarterly earnings. Reuters has learned that there are still some shareholders who support this stance and want Twitter to negotiate a higher offer from Musk. Musk’s net worth, according to Forbes, is $270 billion.

Twitter’s board could open its books and offer Musk a deal to help him sweeten his bid. One option would be to seek out offers from potential bidders. Sources said that Twitter’s board is likely to try to seek out a better offer by Musk, although it doesn’t know which one.

One fund manager who invested in Twitter stated that he wouldn’t be surprised to see Musk raise his final offer of $64.20 per share. He said this on condition of anonymity.

He could also decide to drop everything. Musk’s proposal was “anything is possible,” said the manager of the fund.

The closing price of Twitter shares was $48.93 Friday. That’s a big discount to Musk’s offer, and it reflects Musk’s uncertain fate.

Twitter took Musk’s proposal to stop him raising his 15% stake above the company without reaching a agreement with its board, and he was rejected. Musk threatened to use a tender offer to obtain support from Twitter shareholders.

The board of Twitter is concerned that Musk could be backed by many shareholders if it does not seek to reach a deal, sources say. The poison pill will not prevent Twitter shareholders tendering shares but the company worries that its negotiation hand could be weakened if its actions are criticized by many investors.

Musk, who is the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ) Inc has met with Twitter shareholders every day since he made his April 14th offer to support his bid. Musk stated that Twitter must be made private in order to allow for growth and to become an actual platform for freedom of speech.

Reps from Twitter and Musk didn’t immediately reply to our requests for comment.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported on Sunday about Musk’s meetings and discussions with Twitter shareholders.

‘INTRINSIC VALUE’

According to sources, Twitter shareholder price expectations for the deal differ largely due to their investment strategy. Sources said that active long-term shareholders who, together with index funds, hold the largest share of Twitter shares have high price expectations. Some are in the 60s per-share range. The sources said they also tend to give Parag Agrawal more time, who was appointed chief executive of Twitter in November.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal tweeted, “I don’t believe that Elon Musk’s proposed offer ($54.20/share) is close to Twitter’s intrinsic value given its growth prospects.”

Sources said that short-term investors like hedge funds would prefer Twitter to either accept Musk’s offer, or request a modest increase. Sources added that some of them are concerned about the recent drop in tech stocks’ value amid worries over inflation and economic slowdown making it unlikely Twitter will deliver greater value anytime soon.

Sahm Adrangi is a portfolio manager for Kerrisdale Capital Management. The hedge fund owns 1.13million shares of Twitter or 0.15%. It has been an investor in the company since the early 2020s.

The source said that Musk’s proposal did not seem to have converted his Twitter followers into new shareholders who would support his bid. Sources say that Twitter’s retail investors have increased by around 20% since Musk revealed his stake on April 4. To 22% now, they are reporting.