Guess Who Is Now the Biggest Shareholder of Twitter

Elon Musk buys a 9% stake in the company, though it's not clear what he's up to
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 4, 2022 7:17 AM CDT
Guess Who Is Now the Biggest Shareholder of Twitter
Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk now owns a big share of Twitter.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Last week, Elon Musk publicly roasted Twitter and floated the idea of creating his own rival platform. On Monday comes word that Musk has acquired a massive stake in, yes, Twitter, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Tesla CEO disclosed in a securities filing that he picked up more than 73 million shares, giving him a roughly 9% stake in the company. The move would make him Twitter's largest shareholder, reports the Financial Times, which points out that co-founder Jack Dorsey has only a 2.25% stake. Musk's position was worth about $2.9 billion based on Friday' closing price, and even more so on Monday: Twitter's stock jumped more than 26% in premarket trading to nearly $50 a share after the news broke.

So what is Musk up to here? Nobody is quite sure. His stake is classified as "passive," which typically indicates an investor isn't trying to take over a company or influence who is in control, per Bloomberg. But analysts—and investors pouncing on the stock Monday—aren't ruling anything out. “Musk could try to take a more aggressive stance here on Twitter,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives tells CNBC. “It looks like Elon has his eyes laser set" on the company, Ives adds to Bloomberg. But what exactly comes next isn't clear. (Musk has famously run afoul of the SEC with some of his tweets.)

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