The billionaire entrepreneur says he has secured $46.5 billion in financing for his bid to take over the social media giant Twitter. The Tesla and SpaceX owner says he is "exploring whether to commence a tender offer."
The flamboyant billionaire says he wants to take over Twitter to ensure free speech, though not everyone is convincedImage: Miguel Roberts/AP/picture alliance
In documents filed with US securities regulators, Musk said he was exploring the possibility of purchasing Twitter outright.
Thursday's filing claimed that "entities related to [Musk] have received commitment letters committing to provide an aggregate of approximately $46.5 billion."
The letter further stated that Musk is "exploring whether to commence a tender offer ... but has not determined whether to do so at this time."
Elon Musk surpasses Jeff Bezos to become world's richest person
Tesla CEO's wealth has soared over the past year thanks to a meteoric rise in the electric vehicle maker's market value. Musk is not the only billionaire adding to his riches during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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World's richest person
Elon Musk's Tesla produces cars, but on the stock exchange, it gets treated like a tech high flier. Musk's firm has profited from the market hype around tech stocks during the pandemic and from investors betting on a greener future. The South African-born entrepreneur has overtaken Amazon's Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person with a total worth of $195 billion (€160 billion).
Image: Getty Images/M. Hitij
How rich can you get?
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (pictured with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez in front of the Taj Mahal) is in a class of his own. His e-commerce company has done brisk business during the pandemic, pushing Amazon shares to new records. Bezos, who is worth $185 billion, would have remained the world's richest person had it not been for a $38 billion divorce settlement in 2019.
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Zooming in on Yuan
The growing number of people working from home during the pandemic is a big boon for Eric Yuan. The founder of Zoom moved from China to the US when he was 27-years-old. After some years with rival WebEx, he launched his own video communications platform, with Zoom going public in 2019. Since the coronavirus crisis, shares have exploded. Yuan is estimated to own some $17 billion.
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Fit for success
Distancing rules and closed workout studios have played into the hands of John Foley. Back in 2013, he was still touting his connected workout equipment at Kickstarter. Today, people are willing to spend a lot on Peloton's at-home gym equipment. The company's shares have tripled during the pandemic, unexpectedly turning the almost 50-year-old Foley into a billionaire.
Image: Mark Lennihan/AP Photo/picture alliance
Conquering the whole world
Shopify enables traders to create their own online shops — a concept developed by Tobias Lütke. Born in Koblenz, Germany, he emigrated to Canada in 2002 and started out in a garage like so many other North Americans. Meanwhile, Shopify is Canada's most valuable enterprise, with its share price having doubled since March. Forbes magazine says 39-year-old Lütke is worth some $10 billion.
Image: Wikipedia/Union Eleven
Billionaire overnight
As early as January this year, Ugur Sahin started backing the right horse by working on a COVID-19 vaccine. The drug developed by his Germany-based company BioNTech could soon secure medical approval. The vaccine has pushed Sahin, who hails from Turkey, into the public spotlight and made him super-rich. The value of the shares he holds is estimated to be $5 billion.
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Ingredients for success
Food services company HelloFresh is booming. Profits have more than tripled during the pandemic, figures from the latest quarterly earnings report showed in early November. Co-founder and shareholder Dominik Richter has been making the most of restaurants being closed. He's not quite in the same league as the richest pandemic profiteers, but he's got the right ingredients to catch up with them.
Image: Bernd Kammerer/picture-alliance
Amazon one more time
Jeff Bezos isn't the only one who's grown even richer through Amazon. Thanks to the shares she owns, Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott hit it big and climbed to top spot on the world's richest women list. She's estimated to be worth some $56 billion and obviously happened to be with the right partner at the right time.
Image: Dennis Tan Tine/Star Max//AP/picture alliance
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Musk first floated the plan to buy Twitter for the sum of $43 billion, or $54.20 per share, last week.
Should he pursue the plan, Musk would offer his so-called tender bid directly to shareholders rather than doing so through the company's board of directors.
Musk, Twitter's second-largest shareholder, says he would put up $21 billion of his own cash, as well as a further $12.5 billion in margin loans. His Thursday filing says another $13 billion would come through debt financing from Morgan Stanley, a bank.
After the controversial businessman announced his desire to privatize the social media company in order to unleash its "extraordinary potential" and ensure free speech, Twitter's board of directors quickly adopted a "poison pill" defense to protect the company from his hostile takeover bid.
