Elon Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, has become one of the biggest shareholders in Twitter, just a week after the business tycoon posted on the platform saying he was giving “serious thought” to building a new social media company.
A filing disclosed on Monday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the South African billionaire had taken a passive 9.2 per cent stake worth $2.9bn.
The world’;s richest man worth an estimated $273billion bought nearly 73.5 million shares, a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows. It means the Tesla co-founder has more than quadruple the shares of Twitter’;s founder Jack Dorsey, who owns 2.25 per cent.
The news prompted Twitter’;s stock to soar by more than 26 per cent in pre-market trade before Wall Street opened on Monday, meaning his shares are now worth around $3.6billion, earning him an interested $1.2billion in three weeks.
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.
Elon 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.
.jpg)
