After the American billionaire and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, announced a few days ago his intention to launch his own social networking platform, in a tweet on Twitter, criticizing the global platform, a document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission stated that Musk had acquired about 73.5 million shares. of Twitter's common shares, representing 9.2% of the company's value on the stock exchange, according to the Emirati statement.
Musk, who has been highly critical of Twitter and said the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to the principles of free speech, has today become its largest shareholder, according to the Financial Times.
His stake is more than that of Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, who owns 2.25%, according to Euronews.
Musk's move raised several question marks, most notably, will one of the world's richest men, through his greater influence on the social network, seek to change the laws and rules of Twitter to make them suitable for him?
Will he buy more stakes or even try to take over the company outright? Will Musk be asked to join the Twitter board of directors? Will Twitter invite him to join?
A "thorny" relationship
Musk's relationship with the global platform was not good, but rather complicated and involved many legal wranglings with S.E.C, due to his tweets about Tesla's finances, and his posts and comments often sparked widespread controversy.
So what is Elon Musk trying to do now, is he going to push for the company to change its policy on moderating content under the rubric of freedom of expression?
In 2018, Musk, who is a frequent Twitter user, and has nearly 80 million followers, posted a tweet in which he claimed he had the right funding to pull Tesla out of the stock market without providing evidence of his words.
After another misleading tweet in early 2019, Musk agreed to the condition of obtaining pre-approval for his posts directly related to Tesla's business, and Musk also stepped down from the presidency of the Tesla Board of Directors.
However, in early March, Musk asked a New York judge to cancel the 2018 agreement, and Alex Spiro, the billionaire's lawyer, said in a letter to the judge that the Securities and Exchange Commission was seeking to "harass Tesla and silence Musk."
Twitter's stock rose about 25% yesterday, Monday, in electronic exchanges that preceded the opening of the Wall Street Stock Exchange, Operation Mask. And the value of the billionaire’s investment amounted to about $2.9 billion, depending on the price that the company’s stock closed on Friday.
Twitter's stock was trading at quarter past eleven GMT at $48.75, recording an increase of 24.01%, and the shares of other social media companies, including Meta and Snap, the owner of the Snapchat application, rose.