Alex Bruno
On Friday, March 10, Elon Musk expressed his interest in potentially acquiring Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after its sudden collapse.
The CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan, then suggested on Twitter that Twitter should buy SVB and turn it into a digital bank. In response, Musk briefly stated that he was open to the idea, but he did not offer any further details.
I’m open to the idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2023
However, the following day, SVB Financial Group, a prominent startup lender, suffered a catastrophic collapse, causing major disruptions in global markets and potentially trapping billions of dollars worth of capital belonging to investors and companies.
California banking regulators responded by shutting down the bank and placing it under receivership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
In a video message to SVB employees, CEO Greg Becker said that he was working closely with banking regulators to explore potential partnerships for the bank’s future, but he cautioned that there were no guarantees of success. As of now, SVB remains under FDIC control.
On March 10, Bloomberg reported that Becker sold $3.6 million worth of SVB Financial Group stock in late February, marking the first time in over a year that he had sold any shares.
Becker filed the trading plan on January 26th, which allowed him to sell 12,451 shares through a revocable trust that he manages.
Becker had previously expressed optimism about the economic outlook for 2023, saying that it was improving after a difficult 2022.
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
Before serving as SVB Financial Group’s president and CEO, Becker co-founded SVB Capital and chaired the Silicon Valley Leadership Group from 2014 to 2017.
He was also a member of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors from 2016 to 2017.
In 2022, Elon Musk conducted several stock sales for Tesla to finance his acquisition of Twitter, resulting in a decrease in Tesla’s share price.
Over the course of the year, Musk sold nearly $23 billion worth of Tesla stock. Neither Musk nor SVB has responded to the tweet proposing the bank’s purchase.
