The founder of the FTX crypto exchange offered to share the joy of buying a microblogging service with Elon Musk, but the richest man in the world turned down the offer, preferring to purchase the social network alone.
The failed acquisition of Twitter by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken on new color. During the trial, media representatives learned that another influential figure for the crypto community – the head of the American exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried – was interested in buying a stake in the social network.
A little background. In early 2022, billionaire Elon Musk acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the social media giant’s largest shareholder and eligible to sit on the board of directors. The reaction of the crypto community to the attempt of the billionaire and Dogecoin newsmaker to take over Twitter was mixed. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk will have a negative impact on the social media market. However, some time later, Musk filed
application to the US regulator (SEC) to acquire 100% of Twitter for $43 billion.
However, already in July, the head of Tesla, unexpectedly for all participants, refused to buy, citing the fact that the social network hid essential information from him, without providing data on the number of fake accounts and spam bots.
In a response, Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor informedthat the company intends to sue and recover from Musk a penalty in the amount of $1 billion if the deal does not go through.
During the pre-trial disclosure process, private correspondence was made public in which Sam Bankman-Fried expressed to Elon Musk his “potential interest” in buying Twitter. Bankman-Fried spoke to the head of Tesla through his chief adviser, Will MacAskill:
“I saw your twitter poll about freedom of speech and the desire to buy a social network to make it better for the world. If you want to talk to Bankman-Freed about possible joint efforts in this direction, then I believe that you will like him. Supergenius and active builder, just like you.
Musk responded to the message by asking whether Bankman-Fried, who has a net worth of just $9.44 billion, has enough funds to participate “in a huge deal.” To this, MacAskill said that the FTX co-founder and CEO is worth about $24 billion, and he is ready to contribute up to $15 billion in aggregate. In addition, MacAskill received the consent of the Morgan Stanley financial group to provide co-financing of $5 billion.
However, Musk showed little interest in working with the head of FTX and noted that he did not want “a long discussion with Bankman-Fried about blockchain” and prefers to acquire Twitter without his participation.
This is confirmed by the list of co-investors attached to the application to the SEC, which indicates the Binance exchange, Oracle and the venture capital company Sequoia, which was included in the group of participants in the investment pool of the creator of Tesla and SpaceX.
The court session, which will determine whether Elon Musk will be forced to buy Twitter or not, is scheduled for October 17.
Source: Bits
I am an experienced journalist, writer, and editor with a passion for finance and business news. I have been working in the journalism field for over 6 years, covering a variety of topics from finance to technology. As an author at World Stock Market, I specialize in finance business-related topics.
