Tesla CEO and aspiring supervillain Elon Musk has acquired a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter worth nearly $3 billion dollars, according to a Monday regulatory filing. The move sent the company’s stock surging more than 25 percent, while Tesla shares also saw a slight bump.
As reported by NBC News, Musk is now Twitter’s single biggest shareholder, which could lead to the tech mogul exerting active control over the company.
“This morning Elon Musk revealed he now owns a 9.2% passive stake in Twitter,” said Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives. “We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board/management that could ultimately lead to an active stake; more aggressive ownership role of Twitter.”
In fact, Musk has been outspokenly critical of the platform in recent weeks, particularly when it comes to the subject of free speech. On March 24, Musk took a poll asking whether Twitter should be open source, to which 82.7 percent of users responded overwhelmingly that it should.
Just a day later, the 50-year-old polled his followers on whether Twitter adheres to the principle of free speech, which he notes is “essential to a functioning democracy.”
“The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully,” he ominously added.
“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk lambasted the platform on March 26, asking what should be done. “Is a new platform needed?” he wondered.
Apparently, Musk decided that a new platform ultimately wasn’t needed, and instead decided to invest in what he seems to strongly consider a flawed one. Whether he has big changes in store for the company is anyone’s best guess, but in the meantime, it’s not difficult to read between the lines.
