Elon Musk has increased the equity stake in his $44 Billion offer to buy Twitter by securing commitments of over $7 billion from diverse investors, including Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder.
Thursday’s regulatory filing also stated that Musk was in discussions with other investors for additional funding. This includes Jack Dorsey (ex-Twitter CEO), who is the second-largest stakeholder on the social media platform after Musk.
Ellison is also a member of the board at Tesla’s electric vehicle maker. His $1 billion contribution is the largest. Musk is Tesla’s CEO, and the largest shareholder.
According to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission filing, other investors include Sequoia Capital Fund (tech investor) which has pledged $800 millions and VyCapital which has committed to $700,000,000
According to the filing, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud also pledged 35 million Twitter followers.
According to Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst who follows Tesla and Twitter, the 18 investors represent a “who’s who” of Silicon Valley and Wall Street investment firms. Ives had previously given the deal a chance of closing at 75%. But now, it is 90% or 95%.
Ives stated that the high-profile investors prove “that it isn’t Musk trying to turn Twitter around alone.”
Ben Horowitz (tech venture capitalist) is another investor backing Musk. He said that his company, a16z or Andreessen Horowitz was putting in $400m because it believes in Musk’s “brilliance” to make it what it was meant.
Horowitz tweeted Thursday, “While Twitter is a promising platform for public discussion, it faces many difficult problems ranging from bots and abuse to censorship.” “All of these problems are magnified by the fact that a public company is solely dependent on its advertising business model.”
Sequoia invested in Zoom and DoorDash as well as Apple, Netflix, and other companies. Its website boasts the headline “We help daring companies build legends.”
It has a long relationship with Musk. It was an investor in PayPal’s early stages, which Musk co-founded. The company was then sold to PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002.
Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, made a $500 million commitment to Musk. This raises the possibility that Musk will incorporate cryptocurrencies and related technology into his vision of Twitter. It is similar to Web3 businesses that seek to create a new stage on the internet. In recent years, Andreessen Horowitz also prioritized investing in cryptocurrency startups.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO, said Thursday that they were excited to help Elon realize his new vision for Twitter. “We hope that we can play a part in bringing web3 and social media together and expanding the adoption and use of crypto and blockchain technology.”
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund declined to comment on Thursday. It is currently contributing $375 Million.
Musk would be an “excellent leader” on Twitter, and the Saudi prince said that he was looking forward to rolling in shares worth $1.9 billion into the company. This marked a shift in tone from last month’s public criticism of Musk’s takeover plan. Musk replied by questioning Saudi Arabia’s record on “journalistic liberty of speech”.
Musk originally had pledged to borrow $12.5 billion with Tesla stock to secure the purchase of San Francisco-based Twitter. Musk would also borrow $13 billion with Tesla stock and invest $21 billion in Tesla equity.
According to the filing, the amount of money borrowed to purchase Tesla stock has been reduced to $6.25 Billion by new investors. The Tesla equity share could rise from $21 billion up to $27.25 trillion.
Ives stated that he expected Musk to reduce his equity share by raising money from more investors. Ives stated that Musk is trying to balance any negative impact on Tesla stock with his desire for Twitter. Ives stated that Musk wants Twitter but cannot sacrifice his golden child for it.
Tesla shares closed Thursday at $873.28, down 8.3% as the wider markets fell. Analysts believe investors are worried that Musk may be distracted by the Twitter bid.
Twitter shares closed at $50.36 up 2.7%, moving closer to Musk’s $54.20 offer.
In earlier regulatory filings, Musk revealed that he had sold approximately $8.5 billion of Tesla shares to finance the purchase. Musk later tweeted that he didn’t intend to sell any more shares of Tesla, which would mean he would need outside commitments in order to fund the $44B deal.
Musk started selling shares last November. He stated on Twitter that the proceeds would be used to cover his taxes on stock options as part of his all-stock pay package. Musk sold over 15 million shares last year, which was worth approximately $16.4 billion.
