Forbes reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter, amounting to $2.89 billion as of Friday’s closing price. This makes Musk the company’s largest shareholder, nearly four times the size of founder Jack Dorsey’s 2.25% stake.
Musk is yet to issue a public statement about the acquisition, but the billionaire previously indicated that he wanted to see changes at Twitter and even hinted at building a rival platform. On March 25, Musk conducted a poll on Twitter asking his followers if they believe that Twitter “rigorously adheres” to the principle of free speech, adding that the consequences of the poll will be important. After around 70% of 2 million Twitter users voted “No,” Musk noted that Twitter was the “de facto public town square” and alleged that it was failing to adhere to free speech principles and undermining democracy in the process. In December, the billionaire posted a cryptic tweet depicting the social media platform’s newly announced CEO Parag Agrawal as Stalin, while Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey was shown as being thrown into a river.
