{"id":583668,"date":"2022-05-05T16:30:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T14:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=583668"},"modified":"2022-05-05T16:34:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T14:34:01","slug":"heres-who-is-helping-elon-musk-buy-twitter-including-a-saudi-prince-and-another-south-african","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/583668\/heres-who-is-helping-elon-musk-buy-twitter-including-a-saudi-prince-and-another-south-african\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s who is helping Elon Musk buy Twitter – including a Saudi prince and another South African"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk\u2019s $7.1 billion of new financing commitments to help him buy Twitter for $44 billion come from the highest rungs of global finance – and some familiar faces from his other ventures.<\/p>\n

The Tesla co-founder won over the Saudi prince who initially balked at his offer and brought aboard Larry Ellison, the 11th richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He also got a half-billion-dollar commitment from cryptocurrency exchange Binance.<\/p>\n

Musk, 50, also got hundreds of millions of dollars from Sequoia Capital, a big backer of his Space Exploration Technologies Corp, and Vy Capital, which has previously invested in his Boring Co and Neuralink.<\/p>\n

There might be more money to come. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, whose stake is worth about $1 billion, is continuing to have discussions about keeping his holdings in the company, according to a Thursday regulatory filing.<\/p>\n

Here are the large investors throwing big money behind Musk\u2019s Twitter bid.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia Prince Alwaleed bin Talal: $1.9 billion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alwaleed has pledged to roll over his nearly 35 million Twitter shares, according to Thursday\u2019s filing, which are worth about $1.9 billion at a price of $54.20 per share.<\/p>\n

With a $16.4 billion fortune, he\u2019s the richest individual in Saudi Arabia, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Most of his wealth is derived from his 95% ownership of Kingdom Holding Co.<\/p>\n

He initially rejected Musk\u2019s bid, saying the deal didn\u2019t \u201ccome close to the intrinsic value\u201d of the popular social-media platform. The move prompted a rapid retort from Musk, who asked how many shares the investor held in Twitter and the Kingdom\u2019s view on freedom of speech for journalists.<\/p>\n

Larry Ellison: $1 billion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ellison has made a fortune from Tesla. His stake in the electric carmaker is worth more than $14 billion. He was already one of the world\u2019s richest people after founding Oracle Corp. He has a $95.6 billion fortune, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.<\/p>\n

Sequoia Capital: $800 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sequoia Capital has been a major backer of Musk\u2019s SpaceX and the links between the billionaire and some people at the firm go back a long time. Sequoia partner Roelof Botha was chief financial officer at PayPal Holdings Inc when Musk was its CEO two decades ago.<\/p>\n

Vy Capital: $700 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vy Capital is a Dubai-based tech investment firm. Its website says it has \u201ca focus on category-defining technology companies with the potential to meaningfully impact humanity.\u201d It has previously invested in Musk\u2019s ventures, including Neuralink and Boring Co.<\/p>\n

Binance: $500 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the second high-profile investment in a media company for Binance, the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The firm, founded by billionaire Changpeng Zhao, has also invested in Forbes.<\/p>\n

AH Capital Management: $400 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

AH Capital is the investment advisor of A16Z and was co-founded by prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Since Musk announced his plan to buy Twitter, Andreessen has encouraged the move, engaging with Musk on the social-media platform and even changing his biography to \u201cshadow crew,\u201d a jab at a Wall Street Journal article about those behind the scenes who encouraged the takeover.<\/p>\n

Qatar Holding: $375 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

Qatar, fittingly for Musk, is the world\u2019s richest country per capita. It has a $450 billion sovereign-wealth fund that is seeking to diversify the country\u2019s money by plowing into Asia and the U.S. after investing in Europe. The Qatar Investment Authority is the world\u2019s ninth-largest sovereign-wealth fund, according to SWF Institute data.<\/p>\n

Who’s In | Binance and Brookfield Asset Management are among those backing Musk<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aliya Capital Partners: $360 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

Miami-based Aliya, led by CEO Ari Shrage, has investments in companies it deems innovative and disruptive. Late last year, it was part of a $125 million Series B funding round for Kodiak Robotics, a self-driving truck startup.<\/p>\n

Fidelity Management & Research: $316.14 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

Musk is also getting backing from some large U.S. institutional investors. Boston-based Fidelity Investments, led by Chief Executive Officer Abigail Johnson, ended 2021 with $4.5 trillion of discretionary assets.<\/p>\n

Brookfield: $250 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management oversees about $700 billion. CEO Bruce Flatt said recently in an interview with David Rubenstein that his key to success is to encourage employees to make small mistakes every day, \u201cjust don\u2019t make any really large mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strauss Capital: $150 million<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strauss is a New York-based investment banking firm founded by Tom Strauss, a former co-head of the mergers and acquisitions group at Barclays Plc\u2019s U.S. investment-banking arm.<\/p>\n

$100 Million or Less<\/strong>: BAMCO, DFJ Growth, Witkoff Capital, A.M. Management & Consulting, Honeycomb Asset Management, Key Wealth Advisers, Litani Ventures, Tresser Blvd 402<\/p>\n

Musk secured investments from several other firms, in denominations of as little as $5 million.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still looking for more investors. He \u201cwill continue to have, discussions with certain existing holders of Common Stock (including Jack Dorsey) regarding the possibility of contributing such shares of Common Stock to Parent, at or immediately prior to the closing of the Merger, in order to retain an equity investment in Twitter following completion of the Merger,\u201d according to Thursday\u2019s filing.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: 3 changes coming to WhatsApp<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk\u2019s $7.1 billion of new financing commitments to help him buy Twitter Inc. for $44 billion come from the highest rungs of global finance – and some familiar faces from his other ventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":574952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,15861,93],"class_list":["post-583668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-tesla-inc","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583668"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583684,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583668\/revisions\/583684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}