On Friday, March 10, Elon Musk expressed his openness to buying Silicon Valley Bank following its collapse. Min-Liang Tan, CEO of Razer, suggested on Twitter that Twitter should purchase SVB and transform it into a digital bank. Musk responded briefly, stating, “I’m open to the idea,” without providing additional information.
I’m open to the idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2023
On March 11, SVB Financial Group, a lender that catered to startups, suffered a sudden collapse, causing turmoil in global markets and leaving potentially billions of dollars worth of capital owned by companies and investors trapped.
Just before the weekend, California banking regulators shut down the bank by assigning it to a receivership under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
In a video message to employees, SVB’s chief Greg Becker stated that he is collaborating with banking regulators to search for a partner for the bank. However, he emphasized that there is no assurance that a deal will be finalized. Currently, the lender is under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
SVB and other bank executives sell shares
On March 10, Bloomberg reported that Greg Becker sold $3.6 million worth of company stock through a trading plan on February 27th. According to regulatory filings, this was the first time in over a year that the CEO of parent company SVB Financial Group had sold shares. Becker filed the plan on January 26th, which permitted him to sell the 12,451 shares. The sale was conducted through a revocable trust that Becker manages.
Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker sold $3.6 million of company stock under a trading plan less than two weeks before the firm disclosed extensive losses that led to its failure https://t.co/G8rFVzRpIs
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) March 11, 2023
As early as last January, Becker said the economic outlook was improving after a downbeat 2022.
“We’re optimistic because our crystal ball is a little clearer,” Becker told CNBC. While he expected public markets to stabilize, “We still think in the first half there is going to be more volatility.”
Before serving as president and CEO of SVB Financial Group, Becker was one of the co-founders of SVB Capital, the company’s investment division. Additionally, he held the position of chairman for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group from 2014 to 2017 and was a member of the Digital Economy Board of Advisors for the U.S. Commerce Department from 2016 to 2017.
Last year, Elon Musk conducted a series of stock sales for Tesla to fund his acquisition of Twitter, which ultimately caused the share price to decrease. In April, he sold $8.5 billion worth of stock, followed by $6.9 billion in August, $3.95 billion in November, and $3.6 billion in December, totaling almost $23 billion.
Neither Musk nor SVB has since responded to the Tweet.