Musk secures $7bn of funding for Twitter bid

Elon Musk has secured just over $7bn to help fund his proposed $44bn takeover of Twitter, including $1bn from Oracle co-founder and Tesla board member Larry Ellison.

According to a filing made on Thursday, other backers include cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which has committed $500m, and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, with an $800m commitment.

Dubai-based VyCapital is putting up $700m, while Qatar Holdings – a part of the Qatar Investment Authority – has committed $375m. Fidelity Management & Research Company has pledged $316.1m.

In addition, the filing confirmed that Saudi Arabia’s prince Alwaleed bin Talal would roll his stake in Twitter into the deal, in a change to his earlier position on the takeover.

The chair of the Kingdom Holding Company, one of Twitter’s largest shareholders, had originally rejected the offer, tweeting on 14 April: “I don’t believe that the proposed offer [...] comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth projects.”

Twitter agreed to be taken over by the Tesla and SpaceX chief earlier this month. At the time, Twitter said Musk had secured $25.5bn of fully-committed debt and margin loan financing, which comprised $12.5bn secured against his stake in Tesla, the electric car manufacturer, and $13bn from Wall Street lenders. Twitter said Musk would also provide an equity commitment of around $21.0bn.

However, Musk will now cut the margin loan by half, to $6.25bn, and increase the equity commitment to $27.25bn, according to the filing.

Musk was initially offered a seat on Twitter’s board after acquiring a 9% stake in the micro blogging platform earlier this month, but instead made a cash offer for the entire company of $54.20 per share.

Shares in Tesla – which fell heavily after the takeover was announced, on concerns Musk would sell down his stake – were largely flat in pre-market trading. Twitter was ahead 2% as at 1300 BST.