The richest man in the world with a value of about 273 billion dollars bought almost 73.5 million shares, according to a document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
It means that Tesla co-founder has more than quadrupled the shares of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who owns 2.25%.
The company’s liability share is valued at $ 2.9 billion based on the stock closing on Friday and the estimated cost of the deal was $ 2.4 billion, according to the share price on March 14 when it bought the shares.
The news pushed Twitter shares up more than 26 percent before Wall Street opened on Monday, which means its shares now stand at about $ 3.6 billion.
Elon Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder, with a 9.2% stake in the social networking company
The news pushed Twitter stock to jump more than 26 percent before Wall Street opened on Monday
The richest man in the world bought almost 73.5 million shares, according to a document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission
Shares of other social media companies, including Meta Platforms and Snapchat owner Snap Inc., also traded higher.
Musk’s Twitter account is considered a passive investment, meaning he is a long-term investor seeking to minimize the buying and selling of his shares.
“We would expect this passive stake as just the start of wider discussions with Twitter’s board that could eventually lead to an active stake and a potentially more aggressive Twitter ownership,” WedBush Securities’ Dan Ives wrote in a note. customer earlier. Monday.
Passive investing is a strategy for slowly building wealth through long-term stock ownership instead of frequent trading, which is often accompanied by additional charges and may be more volatile.
Ives also told CNBC: “Musk could try to take a more aggressive stance here on Twitter.
“This could eventually lead to some sort of takeover.”
“This makes sense given at least what Musk has said, at least from a social media perspective.”
The shares are held by the Elon Musk Revocable Trust, of which he is the sole administrator.
On the same day as the submission of the SEC document, Musk provoked Vladimir Putin into a fight on Twitter and posted a meme in support of current trends.
The tycoon raises questions about his ability to communicate freely on Twitter, tweeting last month about freedom of speech and the social networking platform.
On the same day as the submission of the SEC document, Musk provoked a quarrel on Vladimir Putin on Twitter
The tycoon has raised questions about his ability to communicate freely on Twitter and on March 26 asked what needs to be done about Twitter’s principles of free speech and whether a new platform is needed.
A day earlier, a poll asked if Twitter adhered to the principle of free speech, warning that the results would be “significant”.
“Freedom of speech is essential for a functioning democracy. Do you think that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle? wrote on Twitter.
He also shared a poll on March 25 asking if Twitter “strictly adheres” to the principle of freedom of speech, with 70 percent of users saying “no”.
Musk said: “The consequences of this poll will be significant. Please vote carefully. “
In a separate tweet, Musk said he was “seriously considering” setting up a new social media platform.
Musk responded to a Twitter user question about whether he would consider creating a social media platform consisting of an open source algorithm and an algorithm that prioritizes free speech and where propaganda was minimal.
Also last month, Musk asked a federal judge to cancel a summons from securities regulators and reject a 2018 court deal in which Musk had to ask someone to pre-authorize his Twitter posts.
U.S. securities regulators have said they had the legal authority to summon Tesla and Musk over his tweets and that Musk’s move to overturn a 2018 court ruling that his tweets were pre-approved is not valid.
The businessman is a frequent Twitter user, although his posts occasionally bring him to hot water.
He has over 80 million followers on the site since joining in 2009 and has used the platform to make many announcements, including teasing a go-private deal for Tesla that led to regulatory scrutiny.
It means that Tesla co-founder has more than quadrupled the shares of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey (pictured), who owns 2.25 percent
In 2018, the CEO of Technology was criticized when he called “pedo” a British diver who helped rescue a group of boys from Thailand who were stuck in a cave.
His Twitter post also led to allegations of stock manipulation, regularly sharing polls and information about his companies on the Internet.
In August 2018, he wrote that he was “considering taking over Tesla for $ 420. Funding secured “, a nod to Musk’s well-known interest in marijuana.
The issue was that he did not actually have secured funding – but the stock price skyrocketed at the time and it was later revealed that Musk apparently tweeted because he thought his girlfriend “would find it funny”.
He later wrote on Twitter how “high” the stock had reached later in 2019 when it actually reached $ 420 per share.
Musk’s revelation about his stake in Twitter comes two days after Tesla Inc. published low production figures for the first quarter.
While the company delivered 310,000 vehicles during the period, the number was slightly lower than expected.
Musk has been selling his stake in Tesla since November, when he said he would land a 10% stake in the electric car maker. It has since sold $ 16.4 billion worth of stock.
Twitter was the target of activist investor Elliott Management Corp. in 2020, when the hedge fund claimed that its then-boss and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, paid very little attention to Twitter while also managing Square.
Musk and Dorsey had some common ground about rejecting the so-called Web3, a vague term for a utopian version of the decentralized Internet.
Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX and leads the start-up Neuralink and infrastructure company The Boring Company.
Dorsey resigned as Twitter CEO in November after 15 years at the helm.
He remains the CEO of Square Inc., the hugely successful financial payment company he co-founded in 2010, and is the sixth largest shareholder in Twitter.
