Tesla CEO Elon Musk becomes biggest Twitter shareholder; bad news for Parag Agrawal?

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has taken a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter to become the platform’s biggest shareholder, a regulatory filing on Monday suggested. Musk has been one of the biggest highlights on the platform for years and now he has become part owner of the platform with a massive stake buy. The Twitter stake buy by Musk makes him the owner of approximately 73.5 million shares, which he bought on March 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission suggested. Twitter CEO is India-born Parag Agrawal who had shockingly replaced co-founder Jack Dorsey at the top. This is considered a passive investment by Musk, that means he will be a long-term investor in Twitter. That also means his buying and selling of Twitter shares will be minimized, AP reported. However, this surprising news comes to us a week after Musk hinted he may shake up social media! Considering that he has been shaking up Twitter with his fiery tweets, it was assumed he would make some really controversial tweet rather than actually buy a big stake in the platform

On March 25, he had conducted a poll on his Twitter account, while writing, "Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?" Which got 70.4 percent 'Noes’. In reply to the same poll tweet thread, the Tesla founder replied, "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?" In effect, this was seemingly, a poll against Parag Agrawal.

Elon Musk vs Parag Agrawal?

While no indication has been made by Musk, as the biggest shareholder, he will be looking to make changes and and try to mould Twitter more in his own image. How that will impact Parag Agrawal is as yet unclear, but what is clear is that he is not exactly enamoured with the Indian having posted a horrifying meme where he compared Agrawal to the murderous Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin after the Indian replaced co-founder Dorsey at the helm of Twitter. You can read that Musk vs Agrawal shocking story here.

And that’s where he publicly asked whether there is a need for a ‘new platform’. He has always been an active user of Twitter, who shares updates from the companies that he owns, Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink to his more than 80 million followers. He also shares tweets about his family.

Meanwhile, Twitter shares surge high...

On Monday, Twitter stock surged more than 25 percent in pre market trading soon after Elon Musk's purchase was revealed in a regulatory filing. The stake is worth around $2.89 billion, according to Friday's market close. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's electric car maker company, Tesla's shares rose slightly.

“We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board/management that could ultimately lead to an active stake and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter," Dan Ives of WedBush Securities wrote in a client note early Monday, AP reported.

The revelation about Elon Musk stake in social media platform Twitter comes just a few days after Tesla's lackluster first-quarter production numbers report. The electric-carmaker company delivered 310,000 vehicles in this period.