Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become the largest stakeholder of the microblogging app, Twitter, after acquiring a 9.2% stake, which equals about $3 billion.
What’s happening
Twitter Inc. stocks rose by 25% in Monday’s pre-market trading after news of Elon Musk acquiring 9.2% or $2.89 billion worth of stocks broke out. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Elon Musk now owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, dwarfing that of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who owns a 2.3% stake.
- Elon Musk is an active Twitter personality with a huge following of over 80 million followers.
Controversies
Elon Musk’s latest investment in Twitter is coming just days after he questioned the microblogging app’s policy on freedom of speech and first amendment.
- It is still unclear whether the world’s richest man acquired such a large amount of shares for investment or to be in an advantageous position to enforce the freedom of speech of its users, stopping the suspension of tweets and accounts.
- Elon Musk, in a viral tweet, hinted that he could create a rival social media app.