A recent US securities filing has disclosed that Elon Musk (Founder, SpaceX and CEO, Tesla) has snapped up a 9.2% stake in twitter. This amounts to 73.5 million total shares, worth $2.9Bn. As the report was broken by Bloomberg US, it got not only the Twitter’s trending page, but also Twitter’s stock listing buzzing.
With the sudden move, Elon Musk now becomes a larger stakeholder than Founder Jack Dorsey himself, whose current holding value is 2.25%. The news sent twitters shares soaring about 25% in pre-market trading.
Musk had recently polled his loyal follower base via tweet, asking for their opinion about weather twitter upholds the value of free speech. In a cryptic follow-up to the poll, Musk wrote “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”
Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
In the recent past, he has also revealed his considerations to launch his own social media platform, a strategy much in line with former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
Musk is an avid user of twitter himself, and is followed by 80.1 million users. Musk, 50, has had a rather colorful stint on the platform, from posting memes one generally wouldn’t expect from the world’s richest man, to causing full blown controversy with Legal trouble as consequence.
Elon Musk is seeking to exit a deal with the United States Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC, analogous to SEBI in India) that forced influence over his tweeting.
While the paperwork involved in the SEC filing indicates the stakeholders tendency to not take control over the company, or to curb the leadership structure of the company, it is yet to be seen what Musk plans to do with his newly acquired power. Needless to say, the common user of twitter will be enjoying a lot more of his sometimes funny, sometimes unfunny, and sometimes highly distasteful memes.
