Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images Tesla’s honest CEO, Elon Musk, bought a huge stake in Twitter that makes him the largest outside shareholder in social media, shortly after the company was criticized for failing to uphold the principles of free speech. Musk owns 73,486,938 Twitter shares, representing a 9.2% passive stake in the company, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 13G deposit released Monday. The share is worth $ 2.89 billion, based on Twitter’s closing price on Friday. Musk’s purchase comes less than two weeks after Musk criticized the company, asking people on Twitter if Twitter adheres to the principles of free speech. “As Twitter functions as the city’s de facto public square, non-compliance with the principles of freedom of speech fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “What needs to be done?” Late last month, Musk also said he was considering setting up a new social networking platform. While it is classified as a passive share, investors offered higher shares with the possibility that this would lead to something more. Twitter shares rose more than 25% in premarket. “Musk could try to take a more aggressive stance here on Twitter,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday. “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,” Ives said. Musk is a frequent Twitter user and has more than 80 million followers on the platform. However, some of his tweets have put the Tesla leader in hot water all these years. On August 7, 2018, Musk wrote on Twitter that he had “secured funding” to privatize Tesla at $ 420 a share. The 12 months that followed this tweet was a train for the shareholders of Musk and Tesla. At the time, the company had a record performance, but also had to deal with litigation, government investigations and layoffs. Musk also agreed with the SEC that removed him from the role of chairman at Tesla.
