According to a securities filing on Thursday, Elon Musk has raised $7.1 billion for his Twitter takeover from investors including Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk named 18 investors who agreed to cash commitments, including Ellison ($1 billion), Sequoia Capital ($800 million), and Vy Capital ($700 million).
According to the filing, the Saudi prince, who is also the CEO of the Kingdom Holding Company conglomerate, agreed to donate around 35 million Twitter shares worth $1.9 billion in order to keep a stake in the company after the acquisition.
Alwaleed had previously dismissed Musk’s $54.20 per share offer as too cheap, but on Thursday he applauded Musk on Twitter, writing, “I look forward to rolling our $1.9 billion in the ‘new’ @Twitter and joining you on this wonderful journey.”
According to the filing, the investments will lower a $12.5 billion margin loan arranged by Morgan Stanley and other banks to $6.25 billion.
Because of the new financing, less Tesla shares will be used as security for the margin loan.
According to the document, Musk “may receive additional finance commitments to fund additional sections of the entire Merger Consideration,” and he’s in negotiations with former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and others about contributing shares to keep an equity interest.
The Twitter acquisition is likely to be completed in 2022.
