What you need to know
- Elon Musk has bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter worth $2.89 billion.
- As a result, he now owns 73,486,938 shares of the social media company.
- Twitter's share price soared more than 25% following the news of the purchase.
Elon Musk has purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the company's largest outside shareholder. The share purchase was revealed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to CNBC, Musk paid around $2.89 billion for the purchase based on Twitter’s closing price on Friday. This means he now owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter common stock.
The share purchase led to a more than 25% share price increase in pre-market trading on Monday. Musk's stake in Twitter is classified as passive.
It also comes a few weeks after Musk criticized Twitter for "failing to adhere to free speech principles."
"Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy," Musk tweeted. "What should be done?"
At the same time, he confirmed that he was "giving serious thought" to building a rival platform that upholds "free speech" and "where propaganda is very minimal." This was in response to a Twitter user who asked if he was planning to form a new social media company.
