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 crosshairs.
Of late,however,the world’s richest person has been critical of the social media platform and its policies,and recently ran a Twitter poll asking users if they believed the platform adheres to the principle of free speech,to which over 70 per cent voted “no”.
Twitter’s recent quarterly results and lower-than-expected user additions have raised questions about its growth prospects,even as it pursues big projects such as audio chat rooms and newsletters to end long-running stagnation.
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“It does send a message to Twitter ... having a meaningful stake in the company will keep them on their toes,because that passive stake could very quickly become an active stake,” said Thomas Hayes,managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC.
Musk - who,according to Forbes,has a net worth of about $US300 billion - has been selling his stake in Tesla since November,when he said he would offload 10 per cent of his holding in the electric-car maker. He has already sold $US16.4 billion worth of shares since then.
A regulatory filing on Monday showed that Musk owns 73.5 million Twitter shares,which are held by the Elon Musk Revocable Trust,of which he is the sole trustee. Vanguard is Twitter’s second-biggest shareholder,with an 8.79 per cent stake,according to Refinitiv data.