Elon Musk Buys into Twitter
If ever there was a time for that Ron Paul “It’s happening!” gif, this would probably be it. Earlier today, an SEC filing revealed that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, occasional movie producer, and all-around fun-loving billionaire, has purchased 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, giving him 9.2% ownership of the company – which makes him Twitter’s largest single shareholder. This is his first tweet since buying a chunk of the platform:
Oh hi lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 4, 2022
What makes this business deal so interesting is Musk’s recent behavior on Twitter. He’s been asking his followers their thoughts on Twitter censorship, particularly its one-sidedness, and whether they thought he should start his own social media platform to compete with it.
Twitter algorithm should be open source
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2022
The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
Is a new platform needed?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
Many, including some high-profile voices, urged him simply (well, “simply”) to buy Twitter instead. Now, many are reporting that Musk just decided to become a partial owner of Twitter over the weekend, but that isn’t the case; according to the SEC filing, he bought those shares on March 14, and the deal was approved today. That means those tweets concerning Twitter’s approach to free speech and fairness – which were made after he bought the shares – were likely Musk getting an idea of how Twitter users feel about its practices. This indicates that Musk may be looking to change the way things run on the platform. (I can’t be the only one reminded of the ending of Dodgeball.) How much he can do, I don’t know; being the largest shareholder gives him clout for sure, but he still only owns less than 10% of the company. I’ve seen it suggested that he could reach out to other shareholders whose feelings on the subject mirror his and form an alliance. But this is all guesswork; none of us has any idea what’s going to happen, but whatever the case, it’ll be fun to watch.
Oh, and he just posted this an hour ago:
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Come on, this dude kinda rocks.
How do you feel about Elon Musk buying shares of Twitter? Will this improve the platform? Is the return of the most infamous tweeter of all time (or at least The Babylon Bee) on the horizon? Let us know in the comments, and stick around Geeks + Gamers for more on the closest we have to a real-life Tony Stark.
