Elon Musk seals $7.1bn to finance his Twitter deal

NEW YORK: Elon Musk has raised $7.1 billion for his Twitter acquisition from investors that include Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, according to a securities filing on Thursday.

Musk, chief executive of Tesla and Spacex, listed 18 investors who agreed to cash investments including Ellison ($1 billion), Sequoia Capital ($800 million) and Vy Capital ($700 million). Ellison is a board member at Tesla and a self-described close friend of Musk.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of the board at Kingdom Holding Company, made the biggest contribution, agreeing to commit almost 35 million shares in Twitter -worth $1.9 billion — to retain a stake in the company following Musk’s takeover, according to the filing.

Alwaleed had previously balked at Musk’s $54.20 per share offer as too low, but praised Musk on Twitter on Thursday, saying “Kingdom Holding Company and I look forward to roll our ~$1.9 bn in the ‘new’ Twitter and join you on this exciting journey.”

“I believe you will be an excellent leader for Twitter to propel and maximise its great potential,” Alwaleed tweeted.

Other investors named in the filing on Thursday include the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance Holdings Ltd, Brookfield Asset Management, Fidelity Management & Research, as well as Qatar Holding.

Changpeng Zhao, Chief Executive Officer of Binance, which promised $500 million, tweeted that it was a “small contribution to the cause.”

The investments will reduce a $12.5 billion margin loan organized through Morgan Stanley and other banks to $6.25 billion, the filing said.

The new financing means less of Musk’s Tesla shares will be used as collateral under the margin loan.

Musk “may receive additional financing commitments to fund additional portions of the total Merger Consideration,” the filing said, adding that the Tesla chief is in talks with former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and others who may contribute shares to maintain an equity stake.

The Twitter takeover is expected to close later in 2022.

CNBC, citing unnamed sources, reported that upon completion of the deal, Musk is expected to serve as temporary chief executive officer of Twitter for a few months.