Not long after grumbling about Twitter censorship and musing about starting a competitor, it emerges that billionaire Elon Musk has bought a 9.2% stake in the company. The shares were worth $2.89bn when acquired but are worth more now.
Musk, 50, polled his more than 80 million followers on Twitter last month, asking them whether the company adheres to the principles of free speech. After more than 70% said no, he asked whether a new platform was needed and said he was giving serious thought to starting his own. … Musk posted a cryptic meme in December after Twitter announced that Agrawal was taking over from Dorsey as Twitter's CEO. It depicted Agrawal as Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and Dorsey as Soviet secret police head Nikolai Yezhov being shoved into water.
The pop in share value generated by the news means he could dump the stake immediately and make hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Bloomberg News. Given the context of the purchase, though—and the regulatory problems generated by his late-night tweeting—there's much speculation about his intentions. Like everyone else, he constantly complains about Twitter yet is blatantly addicted to it.
