Elon Musk has a hard time staying away from things on his mind, be it space exploration, electric cars or the hyperloop. In fact, he has three companies dedicated to those things. But it’s not enough. The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and the Boring Company is now looking to diversify his business portfolio by taking over Twitter.
How it all started:
Elon Musk, the billionaire and CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, has recently begun buying Twitter stock. He first began buying large amounts of Twitter stock in March of 2022, reportedly failing to disclose his purchases in a timely manner as required by securities laws (getting himself a cool $143 million in the process). Top 10 Richest People of UAE 2022-23
The Tesla CEO has been quite active on Twitter, with more than 21 million followers. But Musk’s tweets have recently been the subject of controversy, including when he called a diver in Thailand who helped rescue young boys trapped in a cave a “pedo.” Just last month, Twitter sued Musk and his company, alleging that Musk had violated an agreement to use the social media platform’s stock-tipping mechanisms only for official company business.
He bought Twitter. The company announced Thursday, in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that it has accepted a $20-billion buyout offer from Musk, who will remain as CEO of the company once the deal closes.
What’ll happen now?
If you’ve spent any time on Twitter in the past few days, you’ve undoubtedly seen Elon Musk Disruption on Twitter trending. And for good reason—the overly enthusiastic tweeter has posted, and in some cases deleted, numerous polls asking Twitter users what changes should be made to the platform itself. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that Twitter employees have been left wondering what this purchase means both for the service they work on and their stock-heavy compensation.
Twitter’s employees have reportedly been in panic mode since learning that the company had been sold to Elon Musk, and that the Tesla founder was planning a “top to bottom” overhaul of the platform. Details are still scant, but Bloomberg reports that Musk plans to ditch the company’s signature 140-character limit on messages, and may even revive the old @jack (John McAfee) handle.
The man who wants to colonise Mars and revolutionise transportation has added another ambitious goal to his resume: buying Twitter. Elon Musk is “considering” taking Tesla private, according to a tweet sent out by the billionaire Thursday morning. In a subsequent tweet, Musk said he’s “excited to work with” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, adding that he believes the social media platform will be a great platform for Tesla (TSLA) going forward.
Conclusion:
And if you’re Musk, that’s just reason enough to give Twitter a shot. After all, he already made a serious bid for the car company Tesla (after the stock had fallen from $30 to $20 during the 2008 financial crisis), which had many analysts scratching their heads at the time and wondering what the CEO was thinking. But Musk persisted, bought Tesla out of bankruptcy and has since turned the company around, recently moving from eleventh to third place in worldwide auto sales. So while it may have been an unusual move for Musk to buy Twitter, it might not have been so far off his usual game plan. And with this purchase, he’ll still get the first pick of any Tesla-themed parody accounts.
