Elon Musk raises over $7 billion to fund Twitter buyout

Elon Musk claimed to have secured $7.14 billion to fund the Twitter buyout, listing Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi prince and businessman Al-Walid bin Talal among investors.

 

In a document sent Wednesday to the U.S. securities regulator, the SEC, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX names a total of 19 investors who agreed to contribute to the acquisition of the social network. The multi-billionaire Larry Ellison, who co-founded the computer giant Oracle and sits on the board of Tesla, will contribute 1 billion dollars. Investment funds Sequoia Capital ($ 800 million), Vy Capital ($ 700 million) and Brookfield ($ 500 million) are also among the main contributors.

 

Prince bin Talal, for his part, will make available nearly 35 million of his Twitter shares once the buyout is finalized in order to retain a stake in the company that Musk wants to take off the stock market.

 

The contributions will allow the South African-born entrepreneur and world's richest man to reduce his margin loan with Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions from $12.5 billion to $6.25 billion. A margin loan allows a borrower to increase its credit by pledging assets as collateral. In Mr. Musk's case, it's his Tesla stock.

 

At the same time, the portion of the Twitter acquisition financed in stock and cash by Mr. Musk and the investor list will rise to $27.25 billion, up from $21 billion.

 

Musk further told the SEC that he continues to seek other sources of funding from Twitter shareholders, including the platform's founder and former boss Jack Dorsey.