Elon Musk's team seeks new funding for Twitter

AFP / Justin Sullivan

Elon Musk’s team has reached out to investors to raise new funds for his struggling social media platform Twitter, one of the investors said.

Ross Gerber, president and CEO at Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, told Reuters that he was contacted by a Musk representative about offering more shares at the same price, $54.20 (AED 199), that Musk paid to take the company private in October.

Jared Birchall, the managing director of Elon Musk's family office reached out to potential investors this week, news platform Semafor reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the fundraising effort.

Twitter and Musk did not respond to Reuters' requests for comments.

Twitter has seen advertisers flee amid worries about Musk's approach to policing tweets, hitting revenues and its ability to pay interest on the $13 billion (AED 48 billion) debt that Musk took on to buy the social media company.

Musk sold another $3.6 billion (AED 13.22 billion) worth of shares in Tesla earlier this week, making it nearly $40 billion (AED 147 billion) worth of shares in the electric-vehicle company sold this year.

Tesla shares on Friday posted their worst weekly loss since March 2020, with investors increasingly concerned about Musk being distracted by Twitter and the slowing global economy.

More from Business

  • UK's Jaguar Land Rover to halt US shipments over tariffs

    Jaguar Land Rover will pause shipments of its Britain-made cars to the United States for a month, it said on Saturday, as it considers how to mitigate the cost of President Donald Trump's 25% tariff.

  • US starts collecting Trump's new 10% tariff

    U.S. customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump's unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.

  • Nasdaq set to confirm bear market as Trump tariffs trigger recession fears

    The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index was set to confirm it was in a bear market on Friday, down more than 20 per cent from a recent record high, as investors fled riskier assets on fears that tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump could spark a trade war and tip the global economy into recession.

  • Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum exceed 500M boe in Khor Mor field

    UAE-based Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, alongside their partners in the Pearl Petroleum consortium, have said the cumulative production from their Khor Mor project, the largest non-associated gas field in Iraq, has exceeded 500 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

  • China to impose tariffs of 34% on all US goods

    China has announced a slew of additional tariffs and restrictions against US goods as a countermeasure to sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. The Finance Ministry said it would impose additional tariffs of 34 per cent on all US goods from April 10.