Elon Musk is set to become Twitter’s interim CEO after finalizing his $44 billion buyout of the social media company, as the billionaire gets closer to obtaining funding for the transaction.
Musk, the world’s richest man, is also the CEO of Tesla Inc. and the founder of The Boring Company and SpaceX, two additional businesses.
Tesla stock fell 2.7 percent, showing that investors were concerned about his increasing Twitter activity. Twitter’s stock rose another 4% to $50.89, although it was still short of Musk’s $54.20 offer.
Last week, it was rumoured that Musk has lined up a candidate for the top post at Twitter. Parag Agrawal, who was appointed as Twitter’s CEO in November, is anticipated to stay on until the firm is sold to Musk.
Earlier on Thursday, Musk announced a group of high-profile investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Sequoia Capital, who are willing to invest $7.14 billion in his Twitter offer.
According to a regulatory filing, Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who had earlier opposed the takeover, opted to roll his $1.89 billion holding into the deal rather than pay out.
“Great to connect with you, my “new” buddy @elonmusk… Kingdom Holding Company and I look forward to rolling our $1.9 billion into the “new” Twitter,” Alwaleed tweeted.
Musk boosted his financial pledge to $27.25 billion while cutting a $6.25 billion margin loan from Morgan Stanley. He has already had bank pledges for $13 billion in loans secured against Twitter.
Binance, New York-based real estate mogul Steven Witkoff’s business, and DFJ Growth IV Partners, which includes stakes in the Boring Company, SpaceX, SolarCity, and Tesla, are among the other investors.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated, “We aim to be able to play a part in bringing social media and web3 together and extending the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technologies.”
Musk was reportedly in negotiations with huge financial groups and high-net-worth people last week about taking on more funding for his Twitter acquisition and tying up less of his fortune in the deal, according to media reports.
According to the filing, Musk will continue to talk to current Twitter shareholders, including the company’s former CEO Jack Dorsey, about contributing shares to the potential acquisition.
Larry Ellison, a Tesla board member and Musk’s self-described close buddy, has pledged $1 billion to the fund.
Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist who has campaigned for user-friendly changes to Twitter, such as an edit button and fighting “spam bots” that send massive numbers of undesired tweets, has previously stated that he would attempt to keep as many investors as possible in Twitter.
Investors have been concerned about Musk’s ability to execute the Twitter transaction.
He dropped off of the Twitter board of directors at the last minute in April. Musk tweeted in 2018 that he had “financing secured” for a $72 billion agreement to take Tesla private, but he never followed through.
If Musk quits, he’ll have to pay Twitter a $1 billion termination fee, and Twitter might sue him to force him to finish the arrangement.
