Elon Musk buys 9% of Twitter stock as he pressures company on “free speech”

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday, Musk revealed that he has purchased 9.2 percent of the stock of the company. The filing said that the CEO of the two companies bought 73 million shares of the micro-blogging site.

The New York Times reported that Mr. Musk appears to be the largest shareholder in the company. At the end of last year, Musk's holding was slightly larger than the 8.8 percent held by Vanguard.

As of this writing, the stock price was up over 28 percent. Since mid-March, Musk has made about $1 billion on his holding.

Musk could use his stake to influence the company. The company's founders don't have special voting control over its future, which makes it vulnerable to outside pressure. The company has just recovered from activist pressure that started in 2020 which led to the creation of a succession plan for CEO Jack Dorsey.

Musk scrutinized Twitter over “free speech”

Musk has fought with the SEC over a settlement that requires him to impose controls on his social media statements.

Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy according to a poll posted by Musk on March 25. Do you think that the principle of rigorously adhering to it is followed by Twitter?

The consequences of the poll will be important. Musk's poll received over 2 million votes, with over 70 percent answering no.

Musk wrote a day after the poll that failing to adhere to free speech principles undermines democracy. What should be done? Is a new platform needed, Musk asked users, and he claimed to be giving serious thought to building a new social media platform.

An Insider article noted that Musk has a track record of firing employees who disagree with him, and that he is a free speech absolutist.

“All-out buyout should not be ruled out”

Financial analysts said that the stock purchase could signal an attempt to influence the leadership of the company.

CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino wrote that Musk's actual investment is a very small percentage of his wealth, and that an all-out takeover should not be ruled out. The managing member of Great Hill Capital said that the purchase of Musk does send a message to the company.