As an early supporter of Uber and Robin Hood, angel investor Jason Calacanis is seeking to raise tens of millions of dollars for twitter shares as part of Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
"We are now gathering interest in investing in twitter because Elon Musk plans to privatize it," Calacanis wrote in a message raising funds from his high net worth personal network
In an email to investors, Calacanis wrote that the minimum investment involved was $250000, adding that the total fee he charged for the transaction was about $18000. As the manager of the fund, he also asked for a 10% interest margin, that is, the income from the investment.
Calacanis is a long-term friend and fan of musk. He often expresses his support for the Tesla CEO in his podcasts this week in startups and the all in podcast. Calacanis even appeared on Saturday night live (SNL) in New York last year, when musk was the guest host of the program.
"#snl's rehearsal was amazing," Calacanis tweeted.
In addition, the documents on the Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit against Tesla and musk recently disclosed the friendly SMS of Calacanis and musk at the time of the most heated dispute in 2018. The CEO had previously announced on twitter that he would privatize Tesla.
Calacanis asked musk, "are you okay? It sounds like you've had a nervous week." In another text message, he said people's view of him was "made up". In addition, he told musk that he had hit Tesla's critics and short sellers.
The judge in this case concluded that musk made a false statement about the "financial guarantee" of Tesla's privatization transaction.
Musk is the richest man in the world, with net assets of more than $200 billion. After being agreed to buy twitter in April, he has been soliciting funds from friends and investment groups. According to a document last week, he has received more than $7 billion from groups including Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and director of Tesla, Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz, venture companies, and binance, a cryptocurrency platform.
If Musk's acquisition of twitter succeeds, he is expected to serve as the interim CEO of this influential social network. Musk had said he would allow former president Donald Trump to return to the platform, but trump said he would not return and would continue to speak on his own nascent social network called truth social.
Calacanis tweeted on May 10 local time that although musk "enjoyed his separation from trump", he did not think the former president should be banned permanently. Calacanis said that instead, he should be kicked out for one year and extended if he violates the terms of service again.
For this type of fund that Calacanis is raising, the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) limits the number of qualified buyers to 2000. If he raised a minimum investment from 2000 entities, it would be a $500 million fund.
According to the SEC, to be a qualified purchaser, an entity must have an investment worth at least $5 million, while to be a recognized individual investor, a person must have a net asset of more than $1 million or an annual income of at least $200000.
It is reported that musk is scheduled to speak at the all in summit in Calacanis, which will begin in Miami this weekend.