Tesla’s Elon Musk takes 9.2% stake on Twitter, becomes single largest shareholder

By Simon Alvarez

Posted on April 4, 2022

Twitter stock is soaring on Monday’s premarket after news broke that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had taken a substantial stake in the company. Musk’s stake was revealed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a 13G filing released on Monday. 

As per the SEC filing, Musk now owns 73,486,938 shares of common Twitter stock, which represents 9.2% of the social media platform’s common stock. The Tesla CEO’s stake in the company is worth $2.89 billion, at least based on Twitter’s closing price on Friday. With his purchase, Musk has now become Twitter’s single largest shareholder.

The Vanguard Group, the former largest shareholder in the platform, owns 70.38 million shares as of its latest filing, followed by Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which has 64.72 million shares. Current Twitter CEO Agrawal Parag owns just 500,000 shares of the company, and co-founder Jack Dorsey only holds less than 2% of the company.

Musk’s purchase of Twitter stock has been received very positively by investors of the social media platform. On Monday’s premarket, Twitter shares surged over 25% following news of the CEO’s stock purchase. 

Interestingly enough, Musk has posted some stern criticism of Twitter less than two weeks ago. During the time, the CEO posted a poll asking users of the social media platform if they believe Twitter adheres to the principles of free speech. The poll ended with 70.4% of over 2 million respondents stating that they do not think Twitter adheres to the principles of free speech. 

Musk explained then that the consequence of his poll would be important, and he also inquired if a new platform was needed. This incited speculations that the Tesla CEO was looking into establishing a new social media platform. Ultimately, however, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives noted on Monday that Musk’s 9.2% stake in Twitter could lead to a potential buyout. 

“Musk could try to take a more aggressive stance here on Twitter. This eventually could lead to some sort of buyout. This makes sense given what Musk has at least been talking about, at least from a social media perspective,” Ives said. 

Musk is arguably one of Twitter’s most prolific users. With over 80 million followers, the Tesla CEO has essentially built his companies’ online presence through his tweets. Tesla, for example, does not rely on traditional advertisements, but Musk’s frequent presence on the social media platform has allowed the electric vehicle maker to become one of the market’s most well-known electric car makers. The same is true for SpaceX, which has helped rekindle the excitement of space exploration among the social media generation. 

Musk’s 13G filing with the SEC can be accessed here. 

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Tesla’s Elon Musk takes 9.2% stake on Twitter, becomes single largest shareholder