Sell on eBay to Buy eBay

Sure, sure, sure:

Sure! One thing that I sometimes think about is that there is a continuum between “real” takeover offers and “fake” ones. Quite a lot of very real takeovers — including most private-equity buyouts and also Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter Inc. — begin with an acquirer who doesn’t have the money. A private equity firm, or Elon Musk, will approach the target and say “hey we’d like to discuss acquiring you for $10 billion,” and the target will say “okay do you have $10 billion,” and the buyer will say “no, of course not, we don’t just keep $10 billion lying around in the bank, but if our discussions go well and we decide to move forward, we’ll easily be able to raise the money.”1 And the target might say “oh, yes, fair, you are [a giant private equity firm][the world’s richest person], no problem,” and proceed to negotiate a deal. Or the target might instead say “prove it,” and the buyer will find some way — a debt commitment letter, audited financial statements, a guarantee from Dad — to demonstrate to the target that the money will eventually be there.