Elon Musk Becomes Largest Twitter Shareholder After Publicly Criticizing Platform

Just days after blasting the big tech platform’s horrible record on free speech (especially for conservatives) and teasing starting his own competitor, Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk instead opted to purchase a large state in Twitter, potentially to influence the company from within.

Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.

What should be done? https://t.co/aPS9ycji37

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022

Am giving serious thought to this

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2022

According to CNBC:

Musk purchased a giant stake in Twitter that makes him the largest outside shareholder in the social media stock.

Musk owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, which represents a 9.2% passive stake in the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission 13G filing released Monday. The stake is worth $2.89 billion, based Twitter’s closing price Friday.

The next largest shareholders in Twitter are all institutional investors, including Vanguard (8.79%), Morgan Stanley (8.76%), and Blackrock (6.48%). In all, institutions hold 78.41% of Twitter’s stock, while insiders hold 2.56%.

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 21% 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.

Musk is a frequent user of Twitter and has more than 80 million followers on the platform.

As the world’s richest man with a net worth of $267 billion (Jeff Bezos comes in second place with $189 billion), this purchase represents just over one percent of Musk’s fortune.

Matt Palumbo is the author of The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros

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