Elon Musk purchases 9.2 percent stake in Twitter stock after complaining about free speech
The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has become Twitter’s largest shareholder with a 9.2% stake. The regulatory filing of the US Security and Exchange Commission on Monday announced the acquisition of Twitter’s most significant shares.
Musk has bought about 7.35 crore shares of Twitter, and with this, he has become the largest shareholder in the firm. This news has seen a massive jump in the shares of Twitter. The micro-blogging site’s shares rose to 26 percent in premarket trading. Twitter’s last close calculations show that this stake is worth $ 280 million.
“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 and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter,” Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a client note.
To recall, the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire announced a few days back that he is now planning to build a new social media platform. But he did not share any specifics on what the social media platform would look like. He also remarked on Twitter and claimed that the micro-blogging site doesn’t allow free speech.
The Tesla CEO has always been critical of Twitter’s content policies and does not like that regulators scrutinize his tweets. Musk tweeted: “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?”
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? https://t.co/aPS9ycji37
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
Musk, who has 80 million Twitter followers, has questioned the percentage of free speech on Twitter. A few days ago, Musk conducted a poll on Twitter in which he asked users whether they believed that Twitter was following the principles of Freedom of speech. He wrote the caption of this poll, “Freedom of speech is essential in any democracy. Do you believe that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle?” About 70% of the users answered ‘no’ to it.
Musk’s buying 9.2 percent stake in Twitter is ahead of the 8.8 percent stake owned by the mutual-fund company Vanguard.
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