Elon Musk

After becoming Twitter's largest shareholder, Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, is joining the company's board of directors.

The news sent Twitter’s shares skyrocketing more than 20 percent on Monday. Mr. Musk had been quiet on his intentions for the purchase, which was worth about $2.9 billion before it was disclosed but has risen sharply in value since. Twitter’s stock rose more than 6 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday after the news of Mr. Musk’s board appointment.

Our policy decisions are not determined by the Board or shareholders,” a Twitter spokesperson said, though the statement may not assuage the concerns of ...

“Will he push for Twitter to open up its algorithm, which the company’s co-founder and former C.E.O. Jack Dorsey appeared to support last week?” “What should be done?” As some conservatives turn to alternative social networks—though perhaps not Trump’s failing Truth Social—the fact that Musk has decided to actually purchase a stake in Twitter has left some questioning his long-term plans in the venture. Musk, who has over 80 million followers on Twitter and now a 9.2% stake in the company according to a regulatory filing on Monday, making him Twitter’s largest shareholder, has seen frequent controversies due to his use of the platform, ranging from SEC violations to troublesome trolling of his critics. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” he added in a separate tweet. Zamora went on to note that while board members like Musk play “an important advisory and feedback role across the entirety of our service”—a role that includes overseeing mergers, acquisitions, and profitability—they are not responsible for the site’s “day to day operations and decisions.” (Musk, who owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, holds a passive stake in the company, according to an SEC 13G filing, meaning he is a long-term investor who is, per Bloomberg, not angling to wrest more control from Twitter’s other shareholders.) Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” Musk wrote in a Twitter poll, adding that the “consequences of this poll will be important.

Twitter said in an SEC filing on Tuesday that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has purchased $2.64 billion worth of shares since the end of January.

On Monday, Musk had posted a Twitter poll asking if users "want an edit button," a longtime request among account holders. Minutes after Musk's filing appeared online, Twitter said that in the next few months it will test "an edit feature" that it had been working on since last year. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?" The largest purchase came on Feb. 7, when he bought more than 4.8 million shares worth $176 million. The disclosure came through a 13D filing, which confirms that Musk has intentions to be more active in Twitter's business. Tuesday's filing said he owns 73,115,038 Twitter shares, or 9.1% of the company.

Musk has been an avid user — and critic — of the social media platform for years. The brand could use some "shaking up," one analyst says.

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. But now, he’s been brought inside the tent of the influential social media platform, said equity analyst Angelo Zino at CFRA Research. Musk is a Twitter superuser and influencer.

BERLIN, GERMANY DECEMBER 01: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses on the red carpet of the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, ...

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk will join Twitter's board of directors, an announcement that came just hours after news broke that the Tesla and SpaceX ...

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To say the relationship between the Tesla CEO and the social network is changing rapidly is an understatement. Musk's surprise stake in Twitter has been the ...

But it’s also true that this sort of thing can be a real distraction for a CEO who absolutely has bigger fish to fry. Moreover, Musk joining Twitter has effectively turned it into a meme stock, with investors sending the price up 27 percent on the day his stake was announced. (Also, Twitter confirmed today that it is building an edit button, and had begun building it last year.) If you take all that at face value, it’s possible Musk’s presence on the board will serve as a kind of bulwark against Elliott and other investors. We also know that Musk’s first official act as Twitter board member was to ask his 80 million followers whether Twitter should have an edit button. This, to me, is maybe the most interesting dimension on which to consider Musk joining the board. But as a condition of leaving, it had set aggressive goals for the company that Dorsey was not close to meeting: growing its user base by 100 million people, accelerating revenue growth, and gaining market share as a digital advertiser. But the hubbub has served to obscure what has been a tumultuous time at Twitter in general. In the ensuing weeks, Mr. Agrawal discussed having Mr. Musk become a more active participant in Twitter’s future, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations who were not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Musk had ideas for reshaping social networks that dovetailed with those of Mr. Agrawal and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, according to their public exchanges. On Sunday, as far as the world was concerned, Musk was simply one of Twitter’s most famous users. On Monday, it was revealed that over the past month he has become its largest individual shareholder.

Billionaire Elon Musk is now Twitter's largest outside shareholder, and joining its board of directors. Here's what it means for Twitter and Musk going ...

But considering the fact that Musk is an extremely high-profile and outspoken investor, with more than 80 million followers on Twitter's platform, the world's richest person is already in a strong position to push for changes. Twitter is a private company that's free to regulate the content shared on its platform without violating anyone's free speech rights. In recent years, Twitter has stepped up actions to battle misinformation and violent or inciting speech on its platform, even banning users who violate its guidelines — like, for example, former President Donald Trump. Some critics say the company needs to go even further down that road. Investors seem to be betting that Musk can exert control at Twitter: The social media company's stock surged by 27% on Monday, and kept climbing after the company announced Musk's board seat on Tuesday. Musk might be the exception to that rule. A regulatory filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission shows that Musk acquired his Twitter stake on March 14, meaning he was already Twitter's largest outside shareholder when he publicly called out the platform.

Stay on top of the electric car revolution by signing up to our Hyperdrive newsletter here. Elon Musk is having quite the week.

Musk's appointment could herald a controversial push for "free speech" and invite more scrutiny from the SEC.

“It’s pretty obvious that Elon is trying to make a play on free speech,” says crypto investor Maya Zehavi, who has held Twitter stock since 2019. And recent tweets have been directed at the platform's future direction. But despite such popularity on the platform, he has a longstanding love-hate relationship with it. In February 2019, Musk replied to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to say that “Twitter rocks.” But in July 2020, he tweeted that Twitter “sucks,” just months after saying that Dorsey had a good heart. One hint could be found in his recent Twitter posts. Musk joined back in June 2009 and has amassed 80.7 million followers to date.

As "mixed feelings" greet the mercurial Tesla mogul buying in to the social media platform and joining its board, Wall Street debates whether change to ...

Musk’s intentions were debated on April 4 after he disclosed his stake in Twitter via a so-called Schedule 13G filing for the “acquisition of beneficial ownership by individuals” rather than a filing on form Schedule 13D — the latter of which is a more common route for those who intend to be “activist” investors. “Elon on the board and/or large investor in any company can only be additive, in our opinion.” As one of the richest people in the world, Musk isn’t parking some of his cash in Twitter to make money, even though shares of Twitter rose more than 20 percent after Musk’s investment was disclosed April 4 in an SEC filing.

Big Short” investor Michael Burry touted Elon Musk's purchase of a sizable stake in Twitter as a net positive for the US – putting aside his occasionally ...

Scion Asset Management took a short position on Tesla in late 2020 and expanded the bet against the firm last year – with Burry tweeting at one point that he found the company’s valuation “ridiculous.” He just wants to sell $TSLA,” Burry said at the time. Musk disclosed his 9% ownership stake in Twitter this week after repeatedly bashing the social media platform’s content moderation policies in the past.

As its biggest shareholder, the billionaire business magnate could reshape the social media platform. Here's how.

Still, Wedbush analyst Ives said he believes "balancing his key roles at SpaceX and Tesla should NOT be an issue or major worry for investors at this pivotal time." Opponents of the research say the primates are subjected to abusive experiments that sometimes end in death. Wall Street analysts had approved of the choice of Agrawal as the new leader, but there have been no major changes to the platform yet. "Twitter's greatest current challenge is to navigate successfully through the societal implications of its platform's use," Benton said. Meredith Benton, founder of the investment consulting firm Whistle Stop Capital, has been pushing for shareholders at both Twitter and Tesla to back stronger policies affecting workplace harassment and discrimination. Several Wall Street analysts said they were encouraged by Musk's new role at Twitter. "This is a guy that does push for change, that does, I think, refuse to have failure on his resume. That means Musk won't have the authority to add an "edit button" or to restore Donald Trump's suspended account. Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share — which didn't happen but caused Tesla's stock price to jump. She describes Musk's new role as a concerning development for Twitter investors, especially given accusations by California regulators that Tesla has been discriminating against Black employees at its San Francisco Bay Area factory. "We don't know what his goals are," said Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor and an expert on social media. As Twitter's biggest shareholder, he has the ear of top managers. The explorer filed a defamation suit, although a Los Angeles jury later cleared Musk.

Sir Richard Branson, less than a year after reaching space with Virgin Galactic, hopes to next trade flights with Elon Musk and fly with SpaceX.

"I had lunch with Michael [Colglazier] today, and we had a long list of things that I'm planning to do ... so it doesn't look like I'm ducking out of here," Branson said. In the meantime, Virgin Galactic has made changes to its structure and brand under CEO Michael Colglazier, who was appointed in July 2020. In February, the company said the refurbishment remains on schedule and is set to be complete in the third quarter.

Also standstill agreements, fake takeovers, tax trades and a laser-eyed bull.

Part of the fun was that a 13G is a form that is used by passive investors who do not plan to meddle with the company’s management, and that doesn’t sound like Elon Musk. Activist investors are supposed to use the more detailed Schedule 13D. But Musk checked the passive investor box. Part of the fun was that Musk’s 13G seemed to be late? On Monday morning Elon Musk filed a Schedule 13G disclosing that he owned 9.2% of Twitter Inc., which was a fun surprise.

SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

Twitter announced today that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be joining its board of directors after he bought over 9% of the company and became its largest ...

As long as Musk is on the board, he is not allowed to own more than 14.9% of Twitter: There has been fear that Musk would be looking to make a hostile takeover of Twitter, since in the weeks before making an investment in the company, he floated the idea of starting a new social media platform to compete with Twitter, which he sees as slipping away from free speech principles. Twitter announced today that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be joining its board of directors after he bought over 9% of the company and became its largest shareholder.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a series of audacious moves this week apparently to exert his influence over Twitter. On Monday, a 13G regulatory filing went ...

“You have different notions of freedom of speech in every country, and already platforms are struggling with that because they need also to have common moderation tactics curated for the country,” said Papakyriakopoulos, who added that speech regulations vary widely around the world, making it difficult to overhaul how moderation works on a platform that’s used globally. “[Musk] has taken this pretty unequivocal position that Twitter’s recent practices—being a lot stronger on misinformation and hate speech—don’t align with his values of ‘free speech,’ ” said Zeve Sanderson, the executive director of New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics. Though Sanderson noted it would be tough to spot Musk’s influence in the moderation of “billions and billions of tweets,” “I think that he does sort of want something that is more akin to 2015 Twitter.” Chou likened this framework to choosing between getting your news from the tabloids at the grocery checkout aisle or subscribing to the New York Times. Users become their own moderators in a way, and Twitter wouldn’t have to wrestle as much with the free speech conundrums that enforcing its content policies can present. “They’ve made a lot of progress on removing hate speech, and we know from both qualitative and quantitative literature that doing so helps more folks engage in conversation publicly.” It can be hard to use a platform to share your ideas if you’re at risk of getting pummeled with threats. “In specific cases, labels can also have a deliberative effect so users can see a different perspective.” Sanderson further noted that allowing for more hate speech would be to Twitter’s detriment. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” he tweeted in March. If he really believes that Twitter has issues with moderation and free speech, now is his chance to mold the platform in his vision.