The 5th is a big day for Musk, and it may be worth celebrating with champagne.
On April 5, the American fortune magazine Forbes released the 2022 Global Wealth List.
This time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk officially topped with a net worth of $219 billion, overpowering Amazon founder Bezos.
In fact, musk and Bezos's personal wealth has been inseparable, alternately leading.
The two have a deep grudge, and the water and fire cannot be written on their faces. The same rich people in the technology industry who have turned to the space field have a long history of competition in various aspects, and even publicly expressed remarks that they look down on each other.
However, in the past four years of Forbes list, Bezos has been firmly occupying the position of the world's richest man.
Musk has been pressed by him, and it is estimated that he is not very happy.
However, this time Forbes released the list, and Musk's rise to the top is not unexpected.
Last year, Musk's personal wealth rose by 68 billion to a staggering 219 billion, but Bezos's assets shrank due to the decline in Amazon stock, leaving only 171 billion.
After this and the other, Musk successfully overtook.
This matter was actually nailed down last year, and everyone knows it.
On the day Musk's personal wealth surpassed Bezos's, he also publicly stated on Twitter: I will award Bezos a silver medal and a statue with the word "2".
So when the wealth list was announced, many people rushed to Musk's Twitter, ready to see what the new world's richest man had to say.
As Musk, who has to break his mind on Twitter every day, this time there is no exception.
Musk "humbly" sent a note:
"Oh, everyone (laughs)"
The invisible X is the most deadly.
But this time, clicking on his Twitter comment area, in addition to the sound of congratulations, there is a large number of voters, who are crazy for another thing...
That is: Musk buys Twitter!
On the same day that Forbes released the rich list, Musk, the world's richest man, made a big move.
Quietly, he bought 9.2% of Twitter's shares and became Twitter's single largest shareholder!
According to Musk's regulatory filing with the SEC, in fact, in mid-March, he had bought more than 70 million Twitter shares through his trust.
However, before yesterday, he was tight-lipped about this and did not disclose any relevant information at all.
After the acquisition, he has held $3 billion in Twitter stock, far surpassing Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to become Twitter's largest individual shareholder. (Jack Dorsey's shareholding is only 2.25%).
After the news came out, Twitter stock soared 27%.
It was Twitter's fastest gain since its initial public offering in 2013.
People were still speculating about whether Musk was an investment or whether he really wanted to "take power."
Within half a day, Twitter officially announced that Musk had officially joined Twitter's board of directors for a two-year term.
This is indeed unexpected — after all, Musk has done similar things in the past.
(He wasn't actually the founder of Tesla.) At that time, he entered Tesla as an investor, constantly raised funds to grab the right to speak, drove away other co-founders, began to take the helm, became the big boss of Tesla, and let Tesla carry it forward. ）
This time I entered Twitter, maybe I had the same idea.
Jack Dorsey, whom we mentioned earlier, is a good friend of Musk, the co-founder of Twitter, and the last CEO of Twitter.
The reason why it is said to be "the last term" is because in December last year, he was forced to resign because of the continuous decline in Twitter's stock price, and was forced to resign by shareholders.
He was succeeded by the original CTO, Agarwal.
Musk was very upset and publicly posted on Twitter to mock Agarwal for forcing a usurpation.
In January, Musk criticized Agarwal for investing too much money in the NFT space:
"Twitter's move is upsetting and a waste of engineering resources."
At the end of March, Musk tweeted N tweets questioning Twitter's lack of freedom of speech and launching a netizen vote.
"Freedom of expression is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter strictly adheres to this principle? ”
"Should twitter algorithms be open source?"
(This article was forwarded by Dorsey and said, "The choice of which algorithm to use should be made public to all.") ）
"Twitter undermines the principle of free speech and fundamentally affects democracy."
"Shouldn't we have a new platform?"
This is still quite intriguing.
First of all, Musk is one of Twitter's most influential users, and everyone knows him as a "heavy Twitter enthusiast."
Since Musk publicly criticized Mark Zuckerberg in 2018, he has quit Facebook and INS to focus on Twitter.
However, he bought Twitter, apparently not just because he "likes Twitter and supports it."
People are even more suspicious that this is actually for their good friend Dorsey...
Previously, shareholders forced Dorsey to abdicate, so he simply acquired Twitter to become the largest shareholder.
It's true that if you have an opinion on Twitter's new management, then you try to change him with your own money power...
Musk: It's cold, take Twitter.
When he published his public criticism of the Twitter platform, people thought he was going to quit Twitter and build a new platform...
Unexpectedly, in fact, this is after he has acquired the shares and become the largest shareholder, he is collecting public opinion...
With public support, after speaking on the board, the bones are harder.
This time Musk joined the board, former CEO Dorsey and new CEO Agaval, also released a welcome tweet.
But this wording is well worth a taste.
Dorsey: "I'm really happy that Musk is on the board!" He cares deeply about the world and the role Twitter plays.
Agarwal and Musk are leaders with a lot of intentions, and they will be an incredible team. ”
And Agarwal's welcome speech is somewhat "yin and yang weird".
"Musk is a fanatical believer in Twitter and a strong critic, and that's exactly what we need for Twitter.
His participation will make us stronger and more lasting.
Welcome, Musk! ”
Musk completely ignored Agarvar's above and only replied to another tweet that Agarvar announced his joining the board.
Agarwal: "I'm excited to announce Musk's joining the board! After discussion over the past few weeks, we believe musk's joining the board will be of great value.
Musk replied: "I look forward to working with the Agarwal & Twitter board to bring significant changes to Twitter in the coming months..."
In the coming months, bring significant changes to Twitter.
You taste, you taste...
Now, musk's first step is to publicly solicit "Twitter does not need an edit button."
But I also know that this is just a small temptation.
His "transformation" of Twitter will not be limited to this superficial surface.
He has publicly criticized Twitter's free speech issues — and what is the biggest conflict with free speech?
Oh Trump!
As we all know, the former president of the United States was once a Twitter enthusiast like Musk.
But as he lost power, Twitter immediately turned around and banned his account, not allowing him to speak out on the Twitter platform in any way.
Twitter said trump's account was at risk of inciting violence, so it was silenced.
This time Musk joined the Twitter board, and immediately Trump fans publicly shouted: Let Trump come back!
Twitter still insists that even if Musk becomes the largest shareholder, there will still be no privileges for him, and the ban will still be silenced.
However, I think I know that if anyone dares to silence Musk, he will be fired the next day for stepping into the company with his left foot.
Now the whole world is waiting to see the play, and I don't know what kind of action Musk will do next...