Elon Musk has raised US$7.1 billion from nearly two dozen investors for his US$44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
A regulatory filing reveals global cryptocurrency exchange, Binance financed US$500 million, while Sequoia Capital chipped in US$800 million for the deal.
With the new funding, Musk will reduce the margin loan he has taken with a group of lenders by half to US$6.25 billion and increase the equity portion to US$27.25 billion.
Other Notable Investors
- Oracle co-founder, Larry Ellison - US$1 billion
- Global technology investment firm, VyCapital - US$700 million
- Private venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz - US$400 million
- Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, QIA - US$375 million
- Asset management corporation, Fidelity - US$316 million
“Elon is the one person we know and perhaps the only person in the world who has the courage, brilliance, and skills to fix all of these and build the public square that we all hoped for and deserve,” said Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Key Highlights
- The Tesla and SpaceX founder also revealed that he is in talks with existing shareholders, including billionaire Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, by giving them an option to contribute their shares to the buyout.
- On 25 April, Twitter accepted Musk's offer of US$44 billion even though the social networking platform had tried to prevent him from raising his stake in Twitter to more than 15%.
- It is reported that Musk sold US$8.5 billion worth of Tesla shares after his bid to acquire Twitter was accepted.
- A Binance spokesperson commented that Binance's involvement is "as a supporter of Elon Musk's plans for Twitter and an investor."
- Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates said that an Elon Musk-owned Twitter "could be worse".
