Oracle Co-Founder Larry Ellison Biggest Backer of Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover

An SEC filing shows that Elon Musk has secured $1 billion from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison to support Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter. Ellison also sits on the board of Tesla.

Oracle’s Larry Ellison

The funding strengthens the equity stake of the Musk buyout. There are 18 backers, including Sequoia Capital with $800 million and cryptocurrency exchange Binance with $500 million. Musk also received equity commitment letters from Qatar Holding, which has pledged $375 million, and Fidelity, which is contributing $316 million.

And Twitter investor Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Abdulaziz Alsaud has committed to buy nearly 35 million in Twitter shares. That’s worth approximately $1.7 billion.

According to CNBC, the new commitments will “help Musk to cut the margin loan he has taken from $12.5 billion to $6.25 billion.”

Twitter shares were up 3% as of 12:20 p.m. ET on Thursday. However, the stock price has remained below the $54.20 per-share offer made by Musk. That concerns investors that the deal might fail.

The Financial Times reported that Musk is working to bring on Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey as an additional equity investor. This would give “existing shareholders an option to contribute their shares to the buyout.”

Free Speech?

Elon Musk

Despite the financial backing, not everyone is behind Musk’s Twitter buy, as CNN reported. Big brands such as Coca-Cola, Disney and Kraft have faced calls to boycott Twitter if Musk becomes the owner.

Critics share concerns that the billionaire investor would roll back the social media site’s content moderation policies. More than two dozen civil society groups said in a letter that “marketers should secure commitments from Twitter to retain its most critical policies.” If not, the letter said brands risk association with a platform amplifying “hate, extremism, health misinformation and conspiracy theorists.”