NY Knicks Owner Takes Hardline Stance with Musk in Twitter Negotiations

By: Mario Mancini

The man who is part-owner of the Knicks basketball team is also the person responsible for Elon Musk having to pay to buy Twitter at the original cost.

The New York Post reports Egon Durban — the founder and co-CEO of Silicon Valley hedge fund Silver Lake Partners, which owns about 10% of the Knicks and Rangers — took a hardline stance in negotiations with Musk when other directors appeared willing to take a settlement to end the legal standoff, sources close to the situation said.

Ahead of his offer to pay full price for Twitter this Tuesday, Musk previously approached the company with multiple proposals to pay less than $54.20 per share. Durban helped convince fellow board members not to blink, sources told The New York Post.

“I know early on [Durban] never wanted to settle,” one source close to the situation said in the exclusive New York Post report. “He wanted to make sure Elon was held accountable.”

Sources have said that it was Ari Emanuel who tried to broker an agreement between Musk and Twitter. It has now gone to the courts to decide. Durban’s tough stance still appears evident in Twitter’s approach to Musk’s recent offer. The Delaware Court of Chancery has ordered Musk to go through with the original deal by Oct. 28 or face Twitter’s lawsuit in court.

The New York Post reports if Musk ends up paying $54.20 a share, Silver Lake will log a 31% return over two and a half years, filings show. If Twitter had theoretically settled and accepted $48 per share, for example, Silver Lake would have reported a much more modest 16% return.

Silver Lake, which owns a 10% stake in the Knicks and Rangers’ parent company Madison Square Garden Sports, declined to comment. Twitter also declined to comment.

According to Wikipedia, Silver Lake is an American global private equity firm focused on investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries. Founded in 1999, the firm is one of the largest technology investors in the world.

Its investment holdings have included Airbnb, Alibaba Group, Ancestry.com, Broadcom, Credit Karma, City Football Group, Dell Technologies, Endeavor, Expedia Group, Fanatics, First Advantage, Global Blue, GoDaddy, Jio, Lightbox, Motorola Solutions, NortonLifeLock, Red Ventures, Sabre Corporation, Skype, SoFi, GLG, Seagate Technology, SolarWinds, TEG, Twitter, Unity Technologies, Waymo, Weld North Education, WP Engine, Vacasa, the A-League football competition in Australia, and ZPG.

Silver Lake is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and has offices in New York, London, and Hong Kong.

Egon Durban, according to his businessroundtable.org biograph, is a Managing Partner and Managing Director of Silver Lake, which he joined in 1999 as a founding principal. He is based in the firm’s Menlo Park office and has previously served in the New York office as well as the London office, which he launched and managed from 2005 to 2010.

He serves on the board of directors of Dell Technologies, Endeavor (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Learfield|IMG College, Motorola Solutions, Pivotal Software, SecureWorks, UFC, Unity, Verily and VMware. Previously, he served on the board of Skype, and was Chairman of its operating committee, served on the supervisory board and operating committee of NXP B.V., and served on the boards of Intelsat and MultiPlan.