By Grace Kay, Business Insider
23rd November 2022 – (Nassau) Embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried owns a stake in Twitter that’s worth about $100 million, according to a report from Semafor.
After midnight on 5th May, a few weeks after Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the Tesla CEO texted Bankman-Fried, inviting him to roll over his public Twitter shares into a stake in Musk’s privately-held company, the publication reported. An FTX balance sheet from this month lists the Twitter shares as an “illiquid” asset, per Semafor.
Musk’s text followed a message from Bankman-Fried in which he expressed his support for Musk’s plans for Twitter and said he wouldn’t be able to invest new money in Twitter, Semafor reported. The crypto founder added he had about $100 million in stock he could roll over into the deal, the publication said.
Spokespeople for Twitter and FTX did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication.
Several texts between Musk and Bankman-Fried regarding the Twitter takeover were previously revealed in September during the pretrial discovery process for Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk over his attempts to ditch his purchase of the social app.
Bankman-Fried’s advisor, Will MacAskill, had reached out to Musk in March saying the FTX founder had considered buying Twitter himself and would be willing to contribute as much as $8 billion to $15 billion to Musk’s purchase.
The two men connected over the phone, and Bankman-Fried later decided not to invest in the acquisition, Axios previously reported.
Since then, Musk has repeatedly dissed Bankman-Fried on Twitter. Earlier this month, Musk said on Twitter Spaces that his “bullshit meter was redlining” when he first met the FTX founder.
“Man, everyone including major investment banks — everyone was talking about him like he’s walking on water and has a zillion dollars, and that was not my impression,” Musk said. “That dude is just — there’s something wrong, and he does not have capital, and he will not come through. That was my prediction.”
Musk’s made the comments shortly after news broke on that FTX was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to secure emergency funding. Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO and lost 94% of his net worth the same day, per Bloomberg.
Bankman-Fried isn’t the only one to roll over his public shares. Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey transferred about $1 billion into the private company.