Elon Musk trying to buy Twitter is exciting: Okta co-founder

Okta co-founder Frederic Kerrest weighs in on the battle for Twitter and his new book. Read More...

From one entrepreneur to another, Okta co-founder Frederic Kerrest is on board with Elon Musk trying to buy Twitter.

“As an entrepreneur, it’s exciting. He is a formidable entrepreneur. Look what he has done across all of these industries,” Kerrest said on Yahoo Finance Live. Kerrest is the author of the new book “Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice from the World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs.” The book references Musk, as well as sharing insight into launching a successful business and maintaining it.

Kerrest believes Musk’s arrival on the scene at Twitter sheds light on the poor job of the social media company’s board.

“A lot has to be done around corporate governance. The board is not actively involved,” Kerrest explained, adding there is “a lot more” Twitter could be doing to be successful.

Musk has a 9.2% stake in Twitter, and offered to buy the social media platform for $54.20 a share last week. Musk believes the platform should be less reliant on advertising sales and better police its content, among other initial ideas from the unpredictable visionary.

Wells Fargo analyst Brian Fitzgerald told Yahoo Finance Live if Twitter’s board were to engage Musk, they could get his deal price lifted to the “high $50s.”

But eyes are beginning to shift away from Musk as the sole suitor for Twitter.

A source familiar with the matter tells Yahoo Finance that Apollo Global Management (the parent company of Yahoo Finance) is weighing options to provide financing to potential suitors for a deal to take Twitter private. The private equity powerhouse isn’t planning to buy Twitter outright, the source says.

“When you talk about private equity, we think $60 to $65 in a bid is needed. That is $40 billion in equity financing in a check and $12 billion in debt to make it work,” Fitzgerald added, referring to a price for Twitter that would earn a good return for a private equity firm.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.