Sean Love Combs Is Among Investors in Elon Musk’s 2022 Twitter Takeover
It’s been revealed that Diddy was one of the investors who helped Tesla CEO Elon Musk buy X.
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Elon Musk to unseal the list of shareholders who helped him acquire the platform (previously Twitter) for $44 billion in October 2022. The list, which went public on Wednesday, was first released by The Washington Post. It names the now-disgraced rapper and record producer as a part-owner.
Diddy (real name: Sean Love Combs) was named under Sean Combs Capital, LLC, but the exact amount of his contribution remains unknown.
The filing lists nearly 100 entities, including some of Silicon Valley’s finest.
Aside from Diddy, the document revealed the involvement of venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and 8VC, Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, and Twitter Founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Many stakes appear to represent different funds controlled by the same firm or person.
In December 2022, we got a sneak peek at Musk’s backers, which include some of these wealthy elites. Among them was tech titan Larry Ellison, the chairman of software company Oracle, Sequoia Capital, and cryptocurrency exchange company Binance.
X’s lawyers originally filed the list as part of a lawsuit involving ex-Twitter employees seeking payment for arbitration-related expenses. But it was initially sealed by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California so plaintiffs had access to it while the general public didn’t.
Attorneys for the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a motion on behalf of independent tech journalist Jacob Silverman in July asking the court to unseal X’s records. Silverman argued that “people have a right to know who owns a company with such a prominent role in shaping public discourse.”
The unmasking comes after the U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted Silverman’s motion. “The disclosure statement does not contain any scandalous information or trade secrets,” Illston said as she explained her stance. She added, “On the record before it, the Court is unable to discern a factual basis for sealing the disclosure.”
As for the founder of hip-hop and R&B label Bad Boy Records, it is estimated that the Grammy-winning rapper invested at least $10 million into Elon Musk’s bid. Perhaps it was part of his strategy to always have “a seat at the table to represent.”
