Musk earns $3 billion from Twitter; Tesla tycoon currently has 9.2% of the social network market share – TechCrunch
He used Twitter to poll people seem to make big business decisions. He’s got his hands figuratively slap (more than once) by regulators on how he uses social platforms to potentially manipulate the market. And he even said that he wanted build his own social platformbecause owning a digital stethoscope seems to be the current version of the tycoon (and autopilot) of having your own superyacht.
Now Elon Musk is putting some of his money where his mouth has been for years. Today, Twitter publish a note confirmed that SpaceX and entrepreneur Tesla took a 9.2% stake in the company, working out about $2.9 billion based on Friday’s share price.
The stock purchase confirmation – which some had speculated last week – sent Twitter’s shares soaring; that is currently about 23% higher than Friday’s closing price ahead of the open market.
The filing, signed and dated today by Musk, states that the stock event actually took place on March 14. Specifically, it notes that he purchased 73,486,938 shares of common stock on that date.
This date is remarkable, in that it precedes Musk by about 14 days tweet claims he’s giving “serious thought” to the idea of starting his own social network. One takeaway is that it looks like he’s teasing the real news here – his stake in Twitter – about his establishment. Once a troll, always a troll.
Because starting a social network from scratch is a long process and No guarantee of success at allMusk’s version of construction could be starting now, in the form of building equity in an established company – a platform on which he’s established himself as a power user.
Musk fans have enjoyed the opportunity on Twitter to Tweet about him in hopes of getting answers and following through on his words on all things crypto and his companies, to world affairs. His critics have criticized the way he seems to manipulate situations, sometimes just to kick, using the platform. As for Musk himself, he’s hard to disqualify but is largely Liberal in his approach. That position is underscored by this newfound interest he’s taken as a social media entrepreneur – not just a user – with a focus on so-called “free speech”.
Some have report that these stocks will become Musk’s largest single shareholder on Twitter. What that could mean for Twitter, for Musk, and for the world of reasonable people who aren’t fanboys of the guy remains to be seen. We’ve reached out to the company to confirm that detail and will update as we learn more.
