The richest man on earth and tech's most petulant CEO, Musk, became the biggest shareholder of the social network, which he said was failing to adhere to free speech principles. Musk's new acquisition was made public in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. According to the filing, Musk bought 73 million shares of Twitter on March 14. Jack Dorsey, the founder of the social media network, is the largest shareholder of the company. The closing price of Musk's shares on Friday was about $2.89 billion. The company's stock price went up 26%. The morning after the news of the long-gone internet, Dorsey mourned for it. The internet was damaged by centralizing discovery and identity into corporations. I realize I'm partially to blame and regret it. After a weekend where gossip swirled around the tech mogul, news of Musk's purchase comes. Musk was denied entry to the Berlin club Berghain, which is notorious for its strict and inscrutable entry requirements. Musk protested that he had been refused entry. It's fancy. An Always-on Retina display can measure blood oxygen, is dust resistant, swim-proof, and give you information about your health.
Monday's disclosure brought renewed attention to Musk's March 25 poll on the state of free speech on the micro-blogging site. He called it a public square.
Free speech is important to a functioning democracy. The tech mogul asked, "Do you believe that Twitter rigorously follows this principle?" The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote with care.
The poll received over two million responses, with 70.4% of them voting no and 29.6% voting yes.
Musk asked his followers what they thought should be done in the situation and whether a new platform was needed after the vote.
The purchase is not surprising considering Musk's obsession with the social networking site and his penchant for making him fork over millions for bad behavior. What Musk decides to do with his shares will be interesting.
The type of filing used to report Musk's purchase, known as the 13G, indicates that the buyer isn't planning to take the company over or have a say in who leads it. Analysts who spoke to CNBC acknowledged that the purchase is a passive stake, but speculated that Musk taking a more aggressive stance in this case would also make sense.
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