The tech billionaire Elon Musk purchased a giant stake in Twitter. By this, he is considered the largest outside shareholder in the social media stock.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission 13G filing released Monday, Musk now owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter. That represents a 9.2% passive stake in the company. Based on Twitter’s closing price on Friday, the stake is worth $2.89 billion.
The surprising thing is that Musk’s buy comes only after less than two weeks of criticizing the platform. He created a poll about whether Twitter adheres to free speech principles. Musk said in a Tweet, “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?”
However, Musk has also said that he was thinking of building a new social media platform.
That step is classified as a passive stake, but the company shares increased more than 20% in the premarket.
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“Musk could try to take a more aggressive stance here on Twitter Squawk Box. This eventually could lead to some sort of buyout.” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Monday on CNBC’s
Ives added, “This makes sense given what Musk has at least been talking about, at least from a social media perspective.”
Tesla CEO already has more than 80 million followers. And he is an active user on the platform. Most of his Tweets are considered controversial.
