Elon Musk has already gained more than $1 billion on his Twitter purchase, the same day it was revealed.
Musk, the cheeky Tesla founder and the world’s wealthiest person, purchased a 9.2% stake in the company in March, according to a filing released on Monday dated March 14. If Musk had purchased all of his more than 73 million shares on that date, their value would have ballooned by more than $1.2 billion at close on Monday — a whopping 51.3% return.
The form Musk used to disclose the massive holdings, Schedule 13G, does not list the purchase price of the shares or whether they were all bought on the same day. It does list the number of shares that were scooped up, and the form itself indicates he isn’t planning to engage in activism or try to force his way on to Twitter’s board — although that could presumably change in the future.
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News about Musk’s enormous Twitter stock purchase dominated the financial markets on Monday.
Twitter’s stock price, which was resting at $33.03 on March 14, increased by 27.12% on Monday in response, with a single share now worth nearly $50.
Analysts are wondering what Musk’s intentions are with the purchase, a mere fraction of his reported $287 billion wealth, but it might relate to qualms he has with the social media platform and free speech.
Last month Musk quizzed his 79 million Twitter followers about whether they think the social media giant is correctly allowing the flow of free speech. A vast majority said they didn’t think Twitter rigorously adheres to the notion that free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?” said Musk, who by this point had already filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, setting off speculation the billionaire could be plotting his own Twitter-like social media network.
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Last month Musk also posted a Twitter poll asking his followers whether the company’s algorithm should be open-source. More than 82% of respondents agreed that it should, and Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey even joined in the conversation, saying the “choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone.”
Dorsey holds a 2.25% stake in the company’s shares while the second-largest shareholder after Musk is the Vanguard Group, which owns an 8.39% stake.
