New Delhi | Reuters: Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter Inc on Monday, likely making him the biggest shareholder in the micro-blogging site and triggering a 23% rise in its shares.
Musk’s move comes close on the heels of his tweet that he was giving a “serious thought” to building a new social media platform while questioning Twitter’s commitment to free speech.
A filing showed that Musk owns 73.5 million Twitter shares, valuing his passive stake in the company at up to $2.9 billion based on the stock’s Friday close. The shares are held by the Elon Musk Revocable Trust, of which he is the sole trustee.
A prolific Twitter user, Musk has over 80 million followers since joining the site in 2009 and has used the platform to make several announcements, including teasing a go-private deal for Tesla that landed him in regulatory scrutiny.
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Of late, however, he has been critical of the social media platform and its policies, saying the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to free-speech principles.
“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,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note.
Musk has been selling his stake in Tesla since November, when he said he would offload 10% of his holding in the electric-car maker. He has already sold $16.4 billion worth of shares since then.
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Twitter was the target of activist investor Elliott Management Corp in 2020, when the hedge fund argued its then-boss and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, was paying too little attention to Twitter while also running Square.
Dorsey stepped down as CEO and chairman in November last year, but continues to own a 2.25% stake in the company which makes him the sixth biggest shareholder, according to Refinitiv data.
Meanwhile, Musk and Dorsey have found some common ground in dismissing the so-called Web3, a vague term for a utopian version of the internet that is decentralized.
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Twitter was not immediately available for comment. Shares of other social media firms, including Meta Platforms and Snapchat owner Snap Inc, were also trading higher on the news.
