Elon Musk Now Owns Twitter?
Owning Tesla is seemingly not enough for Elon Musk, the billionaire just bought a huge stake in Twitter.
This article is more than 2 years old
The name Elon Musk is everywhere. From launching thousands of satellites into outer space to his revolutionary Tesla vehicles, the title Musk has become a household name. Now, the tech and electric-car entrepreneur is putting his investments into social media.
It’s been announced that now Elon Musk has bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter. Due to this significant investment, Musk is now the biggest shareholder of Twitter. News of Musk’s investment exploded the social media’s stock price, accelerating 22% this Monday morning. This has increased Musk’s earnings from his initial stake purchase, going from $2.9 billion to $3.5 billion.
This has come as somewhat of a shock to the general public since Elon Musk has been a vocal critic of the social media platform. The Tesla creator has specifically condemned Twitter’s policies, whether cracking down on various celebrities or flagging content that was notified as unsubstantiated. Twitter’s involvement in what content creators were posting led to Musk having “serious thoughts” about starting his own social media platform. The entrepreneur has surprisingly decided to buy a substantial stake in Twitter instead.
Many suspect that Elon Musk wants to have more influence over Twitter’s policy decisions. Musk tweeted earlier this month that the platform acts as a “de facto public square” and reverses the founding fathers’ expectations of free speech. Though Twitter is a private platform and can remove any content it wishes lawfully, Musk still believes the company is irresponsible for limiting certain content. With his own money invested in Twitter, he may be able to sway the company’s original content policies.
Because Elon Musk’s stake purchase was over 5%, he had to expose his investment to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since the disclosure of his stake purchase, the news of Musk’s Twitter funding has been widely distributed. Though the information has shocked the public, Musk’s stake purchase is under 10%, which Wall Street still deems a “passive” investment. But less than 10% is nothing to sneeze at; Musk is now the largest investor in Twitter, giving the tech entrepreneur more power and influence.
Tech analyst Dan Ives agrees that Musk’s stake purchase will change the course of Twitter forever. Whether Musk plans to change the social media platform internally is almost irrelevant. His huge purchase may signal other tech investors, especially those who’ve been critical of social media’s takedown of public figures and false information, to start funding Twitter as well. Ives believes that Musk came to the pragmatic realization that building a new platform to compete with Twitter would be extremely tough, leading to an investment being his next step.
For as often as Musk criticizes the platform, he’s been a frequent, reliable user of Twitter. With 80 million followers, he has the most considerable amount of followers compared to any other CEO. Though, he has been known to get himself in trouble on the website. He’s been bashed for critiquing gender-neutral pronouns and falsely claiming he received funding for Tesla private. Even with his tweets going viral for the wrong reasons, Musk remains an avid tweeter.
Though Musk hasn’t disclosed what he’ll do now that he has power in the social media company, it’s no secret either. His past statements bashing Twitter for its anti-freedom policies will likely lead to the tech entrepreneur attempting to change the company from the inside.
