Elon Musk buys 9.2% stake in Twitter, now largest shareholder

Billionaire founder of Tesla Inc, Elon Musk, has bought a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter.

According to a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Musk acquired 73,486,938 Twitter shares.

The shares are held by the Elon Musk Revocable Trust, of which he is the sole trustee.

The stake is worth $2.89 billion based on Twitter’s closing price on Friday.

With this deal, Musk will be joining Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street Corp as top shareholders of the microblogging site.

Following the announcement, Twitter’s shares soared 25.8 per cent to $49.48 in today’s pre-market trading.

Musk’s 9.2 per cent Twitter stake makes him the largest shareholder in the company, according to Refinitiv data.

This means the billionaire has more than quadrupled the shares of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, who owns 2.25 per cent.

Musk is a prolific user of Twitter and has more than 80 million followers on the platform.

In March, the 50-year-old businessman posted a poll on Twitter, asking his followers whether the company adhered to the principles of free speech.

“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” he had tweeted.

After more than 70 per cent of users voted ‘no’ he asked whether a new platform was needed.

Musk also said he was “giving serious thought” to creating a new social media platform.

Last month, Musk asked a federal judge to nullify a subpoena from securities regulators and throw out a 2018 court agreement in which he had to have someone pre-approve his posts on Twitter.