On April 14, 2022, Elon Musk offered to purchase social media company Twitter, Inc., for $43 billion, after previously acquiring 9.1 percent of the company’s stock for $2.64 billion, becoming its largest shareholder.
The world’s richest man who’s recently had his acquisition bid approved by Twitter investors appears set to move the microblogging platform into its new era of leadership with some rich investors backing his move.
A new security and exchange commission (SEC) filing shows that Musk has secured $7.14 billion in total from a cohort of investors that plan to support the $44 billion Twitter takeover.
According to the New York Times, by May 5, while some traditional investors had initially backed away, notable technology investors had ‘clamored’ to commit to the cause. They include Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, Larry Ellison, Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, Binance, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Qatar Investment Authority.
Musk told potential investors that he could double the number of users on the platform to more than half a billion by 2025. Also, he added that he could more than double Twitter’s revenue by that date and bring tens of millions of paying subscribers to the service.
“Investors would make a handsome return if they bought into my pitch. And I would take charge of Twitter, at least for a time, as its chief executive,” he added.
Read also: Elon Musk to serve as interim CEO after Twitter takeover
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia said he planned to remain a Twitter investor, with a stake worth roughly $1.9 billion. Although the prince had tweeted in April that Twitter should reject Musk’s takeover offer because it was not high enough to reflect the “intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects.”
However, on Thursday, the prince called Musk his “new friend” in a tweet“ I believe you will be an excellent leader for Twitter to propel and maximise its great potential,” he said.
Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder, is an American business magnate and investor with an estimated net worth of over $100 billion. With his net worth, sources say his investment of $1 billion is relatively small change for him. Ellison has said that he is “very close friends” with Musk, and he was added to Tesla’s board in 2018.
Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley venture firm, invested $800 million and said it had “had a front-row seat to Elon’s business and technical prowess” for two decades. “We see, as he does, the opportunity to drive meaningful product innovation that will help unlock Twitter’s full potential as a global platform that connects the world,” a spokeswoman for Sequoia said.
Dubai based Vy Capital, which specialises in internet related investments, has invested $700 million to Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid.
For Binance, sources say some investors did not wait for Musk to reach out to them, and of such is Binance. The cryptocurrency exchange saw an opportunity to use the blockchain, a database for digital information, to help tackle bots, which are automated accounts that spam people, and is investing $500 million to the cause.
“A small contribution to the cause,” Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder, said on Twitter about the investment. The company also recently invested in Forbes, with an aim to integrate cryptocurrency with a traditional media company.
Andressen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, contributed $400 million. “We believe in Elon’s brilliance to finally make it what it was meant to be. Musk was perhaps the only person in the world who has the courage, brilliance, and skills to fix Twitter’s issues and build the public square that we all hoped for and deserve,” Ben Horowitz, founder of Andreessen Horowitz, tweeted.
Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund is also contributing $375 million.
