According to Bloomberg News, Tesla CEO Elon Musk now owns 9.2 percent of Twitter, according to a 13G filing filed today. Musk bought the stock on March 14th, according to the filing. Musk has long been a prominent Twitter user, and he recently questioned his 80 million followers on the platform’s commitment to free expression. On the announcement, Twitter’s stock jumped more than 25% in pre-market trade.
According to CNBC, Musk’s Twitter shares was worth $2.89 billion as of Friday’s close. Although Musk’s stock is a passive investment, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CNBC that the acquisition “may lead to some form of takeover.”
Musk has publicly questioned Twitter’s attitude to free speech in a poll he held on March 25th on his Twitter account. “A functional democracy requires free expression.” “Do you feel Twitter follows this concept to the letter?” the CEO questioned, before adding in a follow-up tweet that “the results of this poll will be significant.”
“Given that Twitter is the de facto public town square, failure to adhere to free speech norms profoundly damages democracy,” Musk tweeted the next day, before openly questioning if a “new platform” is required. Given that Musk acquired his investment in Twitter on March 14th, it looks as though these statements happened after his decision to buy a position.
Musk declared himself a “free speech absolutist” earlier this month after claiming that some countries had urged Starlink to ban access to Russian news outlets. “We won’t do anything unless we’re forced to,” he stated.
Musk’s use of Twitter has landed him into trouble on occasion. He famously tweeted in 2018 that he had secured the funding to take Tesla private if the stock rose to $420 per share. Musk was required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to have Tesla’s attorneys pre-approve any tweets on the company’s financial health, sales, delivery figures, and other topics when it was revealed that he had not secured funds for the sale.
