Elon Musk made the news a week ago with a poll asking people if they thought the social media giant Twitter uholds free speech, which Musk said is “essential to a functioning democracy.”
70% of respondents said no.
Musk was asked by followers to either buy Twitter or to build his own and he expressed that he was considering the latter.
But today we have reports that Musk has just bought enough stock in Twitter to become their largest shareholder, which suggests he’s got bigger plans:
DC EXAMINER – Tesla CEO Elon Musk has grabbed a huge stake in Twitter, making him the social media giant’s biggest shareholder just days after questioning its commitment to free speech.
Musk’s purchase, revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published on Monday, gives him a 9.2% ownership stake, according to the Financial Times. At Twitter’s current valuation, Musk’s purchase likely cost nearly $3 billion. It comes after a poll Musk posted on Twitter sparked speculation that he was considering buying Twitter or launching his own social network.
Musk, the world’s richest man, now owns 73,486,938 shares in Twitter, according to the filing. The second-largest share is an 8.39% stake owned by the Vanguard Group. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey holds a 2.25% stake in the company’s shares.
Twitter shares jumped 25% in premarket trading on Monday after Musk’s purchase was revealed.
CNBC calls this 9.2% stake a ‘passive stake’ but one analyst believes this is just the beginning:
While it is classified as a passive stake, investors were bidding shares higher on the chance this could lead to something more. Twitter stock surged more than 25% in the morning.
“Musk could try to take a more aggressive stance here on Twitter,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “This eventually could lead to some sort of buyout.”
“This makes sense given what Musk has at least been talking about, at least from a social media perspective,” Ives said.
It would be amazing if Elon Musk ended up becoming the owner of Twitter because he clearly believes the social media platform is abusing their power. Buying Twitter is a much better idea, in my opinion, than trying to build an alternative platform because Twitter is so powerful both nationally and internationally. While I do like Parler, Gettr and Truth Social, so far no one has even come close to Twitter’s features or footprint.
So we’ll see how Musk moves forward. I have to believe that the people running Twitter aren’t happy about this at all but since they are a publicly traded company, there may not be much they can do about it should Musk move forward and force some sort of buyout.