First modification:
San Francisco (AFP) – Elon Musk claimed to have raised $7.14 billion to finance the Twitter purchase, citing Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi prince and businessman Al Walid bin Talal among the investors.
In a document sent on Wednesday, May 4 to the US stock market regulator, the SEC, the head of Tesla and SpaceX lists a total of 19 investors who have agreed to contribute to the acquisition of the social network.
Billionaire Larry Ellison, co-founder of computer giant Oracle and a member of Tesla’s board of directors, will contribute $1 billion.
Investment funds Sequoia Capital ($800 million), Vy Capital ($700 million) and cryptocurrency exchange Binance ($500 million) are also among the top contributors.
Prince Bin Talal, for his part, will make available almost 35 million of his Twitter shares once the purchase is completed to retain a stake in the company’s capital, which Musk wants to withdraw from the Stock Exchange.
This represents about $1.9 billion at Musk’s proposed purchase price of $54.20 per share.
The Saudi investor had previously deemed Musk’s takeover offer, of around $44 billion in total, too low compared to “Twitter’s intrinsic value.”
“Great to be in touch with you my new friend @elonmusk,” the prince tweeted on Thursday in response to a Tesla boss post from mid-April. “I think he will be an excellent manager of Twitter with a view to furthering and maximizing its immense potential,” he added.
These contributions will allow the businessman of South African origin and the richest man in the world to reduce the amount of the margin loan that he has contracted with Morgan Stanley and other financial entities from 12,500 million dollars to 6,250 million.
A margin loan allows a borrower to increase their credit by pledging assets as collateral. In Musk’s case, it’s his Tesla shares.
At the same time, the portion of the Twitter acquisition financed in stock and cash by Musk and the list of investors will rise to $27.25 billion from $21 billion previously.
Musk also told the SEC that he was still looking for other sources of funding among Twitter shareholders, including the platform’s founder and former boss, Jack Dorsey.
For Dan Ives and John Katsingris, of Wedbush Securities, this new move is “an intelligent and strategic financial decision by Mr. Musk that will be welcomed at all levels and shows that the acquisition of Twitter is on track to materialize before the end of year”.
On the other hand, Musk should occupy the role of CEO of Twitter in a few months once the purchase is carried out, according to the ‘CNBC’ network.
If so, Musk will replace Parag Agrawal, who has run the company since November and succeeded Jack Dorsey after his departure.
Twitter, however, has not confirmed this information, nor has Tesla responded to AFP on this matter.
#Musk #raises #USD #billion #finance #Twitter #purchase