Elon Musk has raised $7.1 billion of the $44 billion he needs to take full control of Twitter, including a $1 billion pledge from Oracle’s Larry Ellison.
New documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show Mr Musk has financial backing from Mr Ellison, who sits on Tesla’s board, as well as technology investment firm Andreesen Horowitz and the Binance cryptocurrency exchange.
Mr. Musk’s previous $12.5 billion margin loan, secured by his Tesla shares, was cut in half to $6.25 billion.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of Twitter’s current major shareholders, has also agreed to back the deal if he keeps his $1.8 billion stake in Twitter.
The prince was an early opponent of the takeover, saying last month that he did not believe Mr Musk’s offer properly valued Twitter “given its growth prospects…I reject this offer” .
He tweeted on Thursday, “I believe you will be a great leader for @Twitter to propel and maximize their great potential. @Kingdom_KHC & can’t wait to roll our ~$1.9B in the ‘new’ @Twitter & join you on this exciting journey”.
Twitter shares rose more than 2% in premarket trading to hit $50.18.
Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities praised Mr. Musk for making a “smart financial and strategic move”, saying: “It ties in with our thesis that once Musk gets and wins the offer on Twitter, he would seek funding. near [private equity] and other players to reduce its burden on the 44 billion dollars.
The takeover of Twitter hinges on Mr. Musk’s ability to raise enough funds to buy the San Francisco-based company.
His maximum liability if the deal fails is $1 billion, as previous regulatory filings have revealed – a sum that would be considerably less than any other suitor would face.
Mr. Musk also revealed that he was continuing discussions with Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, about fundraising.
The two exchanged messages of support on the social media site itself regarding the change to Twitter’s content moderation policies.
Twitter is worth around $39 billion, down from a March 2021 high of $62 billion.
Previous announcements about Mr Musk’s Tesla margin loan sent the electric car maker’s share price down 12%.
Tesla shares fell 0.5% in premarket trading to $948.
The electric car revolution could tarnish Tesla as more companies enter the market, Bill Gates has warned.
Experts have predicted Tesla shares will triple by 2025, but last week Elon Musk accused the Microsoft co-founder of shorting shares of the electric car maker, which he says undermined Mr. Gates’ environmental philanthropy.
However, Mr Gates hit back at the accusation, arguing Tesla’s short circuit was not about climate change but about the electric car boom leading to a more crowded market.
“The popularity of electric cars will lead to greater competition for the sale of these cars. So there is a difference between the adoption of electric cars and companies becoming infinitely valuable,” he told the newspaper. BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
The world’s largest companies are investing in environmentally friendly automobiles after the success of Tesla. The company hit a new high in the UK last month when its Model Y and Model 3 cars were revealed as the two best-selling new cars in the country.
Amazon, Mercedes and Apple are among those working on their own electric car projects. Uber, however, scrapped plans to build its own driverless car after repeated setbacks to its dream of having a network of robo taxis.
Charging an electric car is still significantly cheaper than refueling, although the cost of connecting to public charging stations has increased this year.
Mr Gates also told Today he made a ‘mistake’ by spending time with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Any encounter I had with him could be seen as an excuse for his evil behavior. So that was a mistake,” he said.
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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-05 12:43:11
