A regulatory filing has revealed that billionaire Elon Musk has obtained 73.5 million shares in Twitter through the Elon Musk Revocable Trust, of which he is the sole trustee. That figure is equivalent to 9.2% of stake in the social media company and essentially made him its largest shareholder to date.
As a comparison, Twitter’s second-biggest shareholder is Vanguard, which has an 8.79% stake while the company’s founder Jack Dorsey, who recently stepped down as CEO, owns a little over 2% of Twitter. Elon’s stake in Twitter is estimated to be worth around US$2.89 billion (~RM12.1 billion).
Is a new platform needed?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
The revelation has caused Twitter shares to surge up to 26% which is its biggest intraday increase in more than four years. Interesting enough, the move comes not long after Musk publicly contemplated starting a new social media platform that would prioritise free speech.
When Parag Agrawal took over Twitter as its leader, Musk posted a meme of Agrawal being depicted as dictator Joseph Stalin, which implies that the new top shareholder might not be a fan of the newly-minted CEO. The Tesla CEO has over 80 million followers on Twitter and regularly makes announcements on the site, with Musk finding himself in hot water with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018 after teasing about taking Tesla private.
