Twitter came into play after Elon Musk last week offered $43 billion, the equivalent of $54.20 per. action. People familiar with the case are now telling the Wall Street Journal that Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, is considering participating in the offering.

Apollo is said to be able to back Musk or other bidders, such as private equity firm Thoma Bravo, with equity or debt. According to Wall Street Journal sources, Apollo has also considered a potential partnership with one of its portfolio companies, Yahoo, but there’s no guarantee that Twitter will accept this – or any other agreement.

Twitter is said to be rejecting Musk’s offer in the next few days, and may, for example, send a signal about this when results for the first quarter are presented on April 28.

Poison Pill

The paper stressed that there is also no guarantee that the private equity firm will bid on all or part of Twitter, or that there will be any deal – with Musk or otherwise.

Twitter’s board on Friday acquired a so-called “poison pill” that would make it harder for Musk to increase his holdings by more than 15 percent. The “poison pill”, which is valid for the next year, entitles other shareholders to buy shares at a discount if the Tesla entrepreneur is eager to tweet to get more than 15 percent of the stock.

New York-based Apollo also has total assets of about $500 billion, and buys companies in several sectors – including media and insurance.