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Elon Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder, buys a $2.9bn stake

Date: April 06, 2022 Meghna Singh Meghna Singh
Elon Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder, buys a $2.9bn stake 
Tesla and SpaceX boss, Elon Musk, has reportedly bought a 9.2% stake, worth around $2.89 billion, in American microblogging and social networking company, Twitter, as per filings made to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier on Monday.



According to reports, Musk, who has more than 80 million followers on the microblogging social media platform, now holds over $3.5 billion worth of stake in the firm after the market price soared over 21% in pre-market trading on Monday, fueled by the news.



The world’s richest man, with a net worth of $289 billion, and one of the global top 10 Twitter users, Elon Musk has been highly critical of the microblogging site, having claimed last week that he is seriously considered building his own social media site, essentially questioning whether Twitter was supporting free speech adequately on its platform.



Now, however, Musk holds a company stake that is four times higher than that of Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, who currently holds 2.25%.



Wedbush Securities analyst, Dan Ives, has stated that this passive stake-holding of Twitter may lead to an active and potentially more aggressive ownership role.



With other analysts suggesting that Musk’s shareholding could eventually lead to a total buyout.



Elon Musk has often found himself in trouble for tweeting controversial statements and being sued for it as a consequence.



In 2018, Musk was involved in a row with the US SEC for his behavior on the social media platform. The multi-billionaire was fined $20 million for falsely claiming privatization of his electric car company, Tesla. He angered SEC again last year when he asked his followers whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stake, which led to a sharp drop in the company’s share price. 



After news of Musk making the stake purchase broke, Twitter shares shot up more than 25% in pre-market trading, adding approximately $8 billion to the company’s $31.5 billion valuation.



Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/04/elon-musk-buys-stake-twitter-share-tesla-spacex

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Meghna Singh

An English Literature graduate, Meghna Singh ventured into the profession of content development to incorporate her knack for writing articles across verticals including technology, healthcare, business, and alike for News Origins and Newsorigins. She has also completed her MBA in Tourism and worked as a content creator in the field of product development.