Rich and willful Musk, throwing money into shares to buy Twitter, the world's richest man full of tricks

Text | Zhou Yuan

Edit | To the south

Elon Musk is making a big move again.

This time is not an emotional N-corner love and an "open relationship", but a new development direction in the career - relying on "banknote ability" to directly enter the main Twitter.

A week ago, Musk asked his followers on Twitter if they needed a new (social media) platform. The most liked answer was: Buy Twitter.

Then, the rich wayward Musk really did.

Musk is known to have a passion for social media platforms. He is a heavy Twitter enthusiast and one of Twitter's most influential users.

Of course, his previous social media accounts were more than Twitter, but also Facebook and Ins, and since Musk tore Up Zuckerberg in 2018, he himself, as well as the official accounts of Tesla and SpaceX, have disappeared from Facebook.

Musk is active on Twitter every day, he does not send those flat public relations tweets, but kou (kou) stand (wu) alone (zhe) line (lan), only say what he wants to say, will not care about anything else.

Starting from focusing on the Twitter platform in 2018, Musk has become more taboo and has a bit of a style that is not surprising and endless. Up to now, a total of 17,000 tweets have been posted, and when updates are frequent, more than a dozen are posted a day, and almost every tweet can be forwarded to tens of thousands of comments.

And musk is not small to the extent that he "makes things" on Twitter.

For example, on April Fool's Day in 2018, Musk tweeted that "Tesla is bankrupt" and "completely, completely bankrupt", accompanied by a picture of him with a beard pulled, sleeping on the street, and torn cardboard.

Although it was obviously an April Fool's Joke, Tesla's stock price fell 7% that day, and Wall Street was in an uproar, and these elites had never seen an April Fool's Day joke play so fiercely.

For example, Musk shook the short on Twitter, saying that he was "considering taking Tesla private", and Tesla's stock price rose by more than 13% the next day. But in the end, the privatization did not take place, and the stock price fell after that. The SEC also specifically warned about this.

For a while, Musk tweeted all kinds of tweets about Dogecoin, as well as pictures including P, and as a result, Dogecoin exploded. Later, when he was on the show, he said that the virtual currency was unreliable, and as a result, Dogecoin plummeted all the way.

In May 2020, Musk did not know which tendon was wrong, tweeting: "I think Tesla's stock price is too high." On that day, Tesla's market value evaporated by more than $14 billion.

Such a rich and wayward lord, what is he buying Twitter for? Obviously, it's not just because "like Twitter and support it".

Musk's buying and buying for Twitter has been laid out and put into action since January this year.

Musk has been buying Twitter stock almost every day since January, a purchase that lasted until April 1.

Then, unconsciously, Musk bought 9.2% of Twitter's total share capital, replacing Pioneer Investment Company, which holds 8.8% of the shares, and became Twitter's largest external shareholder.

On April 5, Twitter CEO Agrawal announced that musk will be appointed as a director of the company until the 2024 Twitter shareholders' meeting. Musk responded to the news by expecting significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months.

The deal cost about $2.64 billion, but it's not a problem for Musk at all.

The strong entry of the "Silicon Valley Iron Man" has greatly boosted market confidence, directly driving Twitter's stock price to close up and soar by 27.12%, the largest increase since Twitter's November IPO in November 2013.

Twitter's market value soared from $31.5 billion to $40 billion, soaring $8.5 billion overnight.

Bloomberg commented that for many years, Musk's net worth has been dominated by a Tesla stock, but the acquisition of a stake in Twitter has added a diversified element.

According to sources, Musk has sent a "strong signal" to Twitter's current CEO, Parag Agravar, to push for a change in its management and prepare for a new round of leadership change.

These are just speculations from media personalities and financial people, and they have not yet appeared, but Musk's new official has already burned on Twitter three times.

Musk openly solicited "Twitter does not need an edit button", like a boss who is eager to ask his own users for improvement suggestions. Although it was only a small temptation, it was clear that he was fully accustomed to his new role and enjoyed it.

More than 75 percent of the votes voted for "yes" and less than 25 percent voted for "no."

But Musk, who is good at playing terriers, specially added a careful machine to the voting column, "yes" and "no" were misplaced as "yse" and "on".

To say that this is a perfectionist + paranoid Musk accidentally slipped his hand to write like this, it is estimated that no one will believe it. After all, he was furious about the written spelling mistakes and even fired old employees.

This is obviously a hint to people that Twitter does need editing functions, and by the way, Twitter engineers are urged to quickly add, if they do not change, it is estimated that Musk, who is a programmer, will spend a little time to get it all done.

But it is clear that his "transformation" of Twitter will not be limited to this superficial superficial effort.

After all, Musk can do anything, "if you can't see it, change it" is one of the principles of Musk's entrepreneurship.

And his questioning and ridicule of the current CEO, Parag Agrawal, as well as his appreciation for co-founder Jack Dorsey, are all on the table.

In 2020, Musk publicly supported Jack Dorsey as Twitter's CEO.

In the following year, Twitter's stock price and performance continued to slump, and Jack Dorsey was also the CEO of both Twitter and SQUARE listed companies, which was very unhappy with the investment institutions, and Jack Dorsey was forced to give way to Parag Agravar.

Musk's new stake in Twitter could open the door to a management reshuffle at the social media company, but some investors expect Musk to continue to increase his stake or take a controlling stake in Twitter so that there won't be a big backlash to push for reform.

Two days ago, Forbes released the 2022 global billionaire list, showing that Musk became the world's richest man with a net worth of $219 billion.

In the past four years of Forbes rankings, Bezos has been firmly in the position of the world's richest man. Today, Musk is worth $48 billion more than Bezos, and he is far behind, which is a ride.

Now the big purchase of Twitter is also the icing on the cake for his career.

However, more people are not paying attention to this, but another Twitter enthusiast, former President Trump, who once "ruled the country with Twitter".

Musk has publicly criticized Twitter's free speech issues. After the Congressional incident, Twitter banned Trump's account on the grounds that there was a risk of incitement to violence and did not allow him to speak out on the Twitter platform in any way.

With Musk joining Twitter's board, there is growing demand for Trump to return to mass social media.

U.S. Rep. Lawrence said on Twitter, "Now that @ElonMusk is Twitter's largest shareholder, it's time to lift political censorship." oh...... Bring Trump back! ”

Trump's former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Monica Crowley, also said Musk should "demand an end to political censorship, a company-wide reform, and a restoration of Trump's freedom to speak." ”

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. But in the end, who knows what will happen? (Musk: When do I need you to teach me to do things? ）

I don't know what kind of action Musk will do next (what kind of madness), anyway, the melon people all over the world have been allowed to protect the bench and melon seeds are ready to watch the play.