The CEO of Tesla Motors and billionaire Elon Musk became the top shareholder (9.2% stake) in Twitter Inc, a week after hinting he might shake up the social media industry. Twitter shares surged as much as 27% after Musk’s purchase was revealed Monday in a regulatory filing.
The billionaire polled today asking his followers if twitter needs an edit button. The Twitter chief executive officer Parag Agarwal cautioned users to “vote carefully” on the edit button requirement poll put up by Tesla Inc CEO. Agarwal said that the “consequences of this poll will be important”. Agrawal’s response was a dig at another Twitter-related poll that Elon Musk had put out last week.
As we recall, last week, Musk polled his more than 80 million followers on Twitter asking whether the company adheres to the principles of free speech. He further said that the consequences of the poll will be important. After more than 70% said no, he asked whether a new platform was needed and said he was giving serious thought to starting his own. The “consequence” was Musk buying a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter Inc.
A regulatory filing showed that Musk owns 73.5 million Twitter shares through Elon Musk Revocable Trust, of which he is the sole trustee. On April 1, Twitter had tweeted from its official account, saying it was working on the long-awaited “edit” button. When users asked if the tweet was an April fool prank, the company had then said, “We cannot confirm or deny but we may edit our statement later.”