It appears that Elon Musk is looking for more big money to back his proposed purchase of the Twitter social media platform.
Some people didn’t bat an eye a few weeks ago when news broke that Musk was considering this purchase for around $44 billion.
The question remains, though, where is all that money going to come from?
There were implicit indicators that Musk had the entire amount on hand, but now today we get headlines showing he will not be going it alone, but rather, trying to swallow the social media giant with a coalition of the wealthy.
An unnamed Reuters reporter writes that investors like Larry Ellison of Oracle and the Sequoia Capital group have signed on with a combined pledge of $7.14 billion. (Ellison, who is on Tesla’s board, is reportedly offering $1 billion personally.)
A Saudi prince, meanwhile, is keeping $1.89 billion in the deal.
“Musk will continue to hold talks with existing shareholders of Twitter, including the company’s former chief Jack Dorsey, to contribute shares to the proposed acquisition,” Reuters reports.
And, of course, the bulk of the purchase will be funded with Musk’s own personal money from his other companies and endeavors.
The Reuters coverage also reports a change in certain leveraging behind the Twitter deal, and notes that ‘libertarians’ have been trying to get Musk to take over the platform for a while.
But the news coverage also points out that the company is not a nonprofit, and Musk will have to create continued growth for shareholders.
That’s despite a take-private plan that would change Twitter’s public status as a company and put it under a different kind of operating umbrella, to which Musk would have the keys.
Watch this deal as it goes through, to understand what impact big wealth is having on social media and social expression.
