The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has become Twitter’s largest shareholder after buying a 9.2% stake in the company, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Tesla founder and tech guru bought 73,486,938 Twitter shares on March 14, which is worth $2.89 billion (£2.20 billion), and is more than four times the 2.25% holding of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
The news sent Twitter shares soaring about 25% in pre-market trading on Monday, April 4.
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Musk, a regular Twitter user with more than 80 million followers, recently he said he is giving “serious thought” to building a new social media platform, after asking his followers whether they thought the social media platform encouraged free speech.
“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
“Is a new platform needed?” he asked.