Twitter takeover

Binance wired $500M to back Musk’s Twitter takeover — CZ

The Binance CEO said the company wired $500 million to take a share of equity as Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover is finally sealed.

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao says the company followed through with a $500 million commitment to back Elon Musk’s high-profile Twitter takeover.

Musk reportedly sealed the deal on Oct. 27, with a handful of Twitter executives escorted to the door as the new owner of the social media platform cleaned house.

Binance had indicated that it would co-invest in Twitter in May 2022, alongside 18 other investors that included the likes of cryptocurrency investment firms Sequoia Capital Fund, Fidelity Management and Research Company.

Related: How Crypto Twitter could change under Musk’s leadership

Binance’s founder confirmed on Oct. 28 that the company had indeed put its money on the table as Musk finalized his ownership of Twitter. CZ took to the newly-owned platform to confirm that the company had wired the funds earlier in the week.

Commenting on questions in the thread, CZ said that he was not involved in facilitating the transaction himself and joked that he thought the transaction had been processed through traditional banking means and not over a blockchain or cryptocurrency transaction.

Binance’s $500 million stake in Twitter makes it the fourth biggest contributor to the takeover. The Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust invested $1 billion to make it the biggest contributor to the Musk-led acquisition of the social media platform.

Cointelegraph has reached out to Binance to ascertain the finer details of its Twitter investment, its total shareholdings and other potential partnerships entailed.

Binance, Sequoia still backing Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter

The Twitter deal is back on this month, and Binance confirmed to Cointelegraph that it intends to support the deal as part of its push for Web3 adoption.

Binance and tech investor Sequoia Capital are reportedly still backing Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid of social media platform Twitter.

Sequoia Capital already committed $800 million to the deal back in April before Musk subsequently got cold feet. According to an unnamed source familiar with the matter, the firm will keep that capital allocation to support the deal now that the deal is reportedly back this month.

Binance has also indicated that it will carry on with its contribution of $500 million, with a representative telling Cointelegraph that “we’re still committed and nothing new to share at this moment” as they referred to Changpeng ”CZ” Zhao’s comments via Twitter from May:

“We hope to be able to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together and broadening the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.”

At the start of October, it was reported that Musk had pulled another abrupt U-turn by filing a notice with the Delaware Chancery Court on Oct. 3 indicating that he is ready to proceed with the “closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement.”

If the deal goes through, the purchase will be for the initially agreed upon $54.20 per share for a total of $44 billion.

Sequoia Capital has a history of backing Musk’s endeavors, as it was an early-stage investor in what eventually became PayPal, the payments platform he co-founded that was sold for $1.5 billion in 2002. The firm also led a $675 million funding round for Musk’s Boring Company in April.

Related: PayPal says policy to punish users for misinformation was ‘in error’

Binance has had a keen eye on big mainstream deals this year, previously placing a $200 million strategic investment into financial news outlet Forbes, intending to improve consumer understanding of crypto and blockchain.

Aside from the $500 million to support Musk’s Twitter takeover, Bloomberg reported last week that Binance has splurged $325 million on 67 projects this year. CZ has also stated the firm may spend more than $1 billion this year in commercial investments.