Longtime Elon Musk backer says Twitter deal will close at lower price
A longtime investor in Elon Musk’s corporations predicts the mogul’s Twitter takeover bid will shut — however not till the Tesla titan negotiates a lower cost.
Tim Draper, an early investor in Tesla and SpaceX who co-founded a enterprise capital agency that’s sinking $100 million into Musk’s Twitter bid, was requested Monday whether or not he thought Musk would efficiently shut the deal.
“I believe so,” Draper responded. “However I believe he’s going to get a greater deal as a result of he came upon that, no matter, two-thirds [of users] are bots or one thing.”
Whereas Twitter formally accepted a $44 billion provide from Musk in April, the Tesla CEO has since pumped the brakes on his takeover bid over alleged considerations associated to pretend accounts and spam. Musk had provided $54.20 a share however the inventory was buying and selling at round $37 on Monday.
On Friday, Musk stated the deal was “quickly on maintain pending particulars supporting calculation that spam/pretend accounts do certainly characterize lower than 5% of customers” — earlier than insisting hours later that he was “nonetheless dedicated” to the buyout.
Then on Monday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal posted a thread about steps the corporate is taking to measure and take down bots. Musk then responded with a smiling poop emoji.
Some analysts have speculated that Musk is utilizing the spam challenge as a negotiating tactic, whereas others say he’s gotten chilly toes and is searching for a method to get out of the deal altogether.
Draper — a longtime bitcoin bull who has additionally invested in Skype, Coinbase and Elizabeth Holmes’ defunct blood startup Theranos — stated Musk will go ahead with shopping for Twitter as a result of he believes in free speech.
“I believe he believes — and weirdly Jack Dorsey believed — in free speech,” stated Draper throughout an interview with Fox Enterprise’ Liz Claman on the Token Safety Summit in Manhattan. “And he’s type of terrified they’re — Twitter is — type of the arbiters of what persons are allowed to say. And I believe he simply went in and stated, ‘You recognize, I can purchase it.’ And he simply goes to. I believe that’s principally what occurred.”
Draper co-founded a enterprise capital agency referred to as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, however left the agency in 2013. A spin-off of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, referred to as DFJ Development, is contributing $100 million to Musk’s Twitter bid alongside different traders, together with Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal al Stated.
It’s unclear whether or not Draper performed any function in DFJ Development becoming a member of Musk’s Twitter bid. DFJ Development didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Draper additionally predicted that the present crypto market massacre will quickly give method to a rally. He made the daring declare that bitcoin, which was buying and selling at $29,900 on Monday afternoon, would hit $250,000 by the tip of 2022 or early 2023.
